M'-;;
THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND
THE PALE
AN ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY SEPTS AND LATER
SETTLERS OF THE KING'S COUNTY AND OF
LIFE IN THE ENGLISH PALE
BY
F. R. MONTGOMERY HITCHCOCK, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA," "MYSTERY OF THE
CROSS," "SUGGESTIONS FOR BIBLE STUDY," "CELTIC
TYPES OF LIFE AND ART," ETC
DUBLIN:
SEALY, BRYERS AND WALKER
MIDDLE ABBEY STREET
1908
H^
PRINTED BY
SEALY, ERYERS AND WALKER,
MIDDLE ABBEY STREET,
DUBLIN.
UXORI BENIGNAE ET BEATAE.
— : o : —
Rapta sinu subito niteas per saecula caeli,
Pars animi major, rerum carissima, conjux.
Mox Deus orbatos iterum conjunget amantes ;
Et laeti mecum pueri duo limina mortis,
Delicias nostras visum, transibimus una.
Tempora te solam nostrae coluere juventae ;
Fulgebit facies ridens mihi sancta relicto
Vivus amor donee laxabit vincula leti.
Interea votum accipias a me mea sponsa libellum.
Gratia mollis enim vultus inspirat amantem,
Mensque benigna trahit, labentem et dextera tollit.
Aegros egregio solata venusta lepore es :
Natis mater eras, mulier gratissima sponso.
Coelicolum jam adscripta choris fungere labore.
In gremio Christi, semper dilecta, quiescens.
Christus enim servat, servum revocatque Redemptor.
Usque novissima vox mea pectora personat ilia.
PREFACE.
The favourable reception of '' Celtic Types of Life
and Art " has emboldened the writer to attempt
another book on Irish life. This second venture deals
principally with the history of the original Irish septs
and the later English settlers of the King's County,
giving contemporaneous glimpses of the unhappy
progress of life in the district known as " The Pale."
It will be seen that the story of the settlers makes
even greater demands upon the sympathy of the
historian than that of the Irish septs of O'CarroU
and O'Connor ; and that, while almost every English
official propounded his scheme for the settlement of
the country, the poet Spenser, for a time private
secretary of the Deputy, Lord Grey, fell most com-
pletely under the spell of the land, not only writing
his " View of the Present State of Ireland," but also
wedding an Irish maid and composing the immortal
*' Faerie Queen " on Irish soil.
Subjects of controversy in religion and politics
have again been avoided because of the conviction
that there is a common platform on which all Irishmen,
however opposed in these matters, may meet to con-
sider the improvement of their country, the promotion
of its industry, and the preservation of the annals of
its past.
vi. PREFACE
Sources and authorities of importance are given in
every instance. In the second chapter a suggestion
of the late Mr. T. L. Cooke has been worked out.
The writer expresses his obligations to the pub-
lishers, who have spared no expense to make the
book a success ; to the Rev. J. E. H. Murphy,
Professor of Irish in Trinity College, the Rev. M. E.
O'Malley, and Mr. E. Fournier D'Albe, B.Sc, his
brother-in-law, who have given valuable assistance in
the spelling of Irish names ; and to his friend, Mr.
Thomas Ulick Sadleir, B.L., who has contributed the
important Appendix on the King's County families
in the eighteenth century.
CONTENTS
PAGE
UxORi Benignae et Beatae .... iii.
Preface v.
Contents . vii.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The Early Peoples of Erin . . . . i
CHAPTER H.
The Race of the Horseman and an Ancient
Relic 17
CHAPTER HI.
The King's County and the Slieve Bloom . . 34
CHAPTER IV.
The O'Connors and the Pale . . . .53
CHAPTER V.
The Rise of the O'Connors and Richard IPs.
Expedition 73
CHAPTER VI.
Ireland under the Lancastrian Kings . .90
CHAPTER VII.
Acts of Significance 105
CHAPTER VIII.
The Geraldines and Butlers . . . .120
Vlll, CONTENTS.
Pags.
CHAPTER IX.
Silken Thomas and the O'Connors . . .128
CHAPTER X.
The Plantation of Offaly and Leix . . . 142
CHAPTER XL
Thn Rise of the O'Carrolls and O'Mulloys . 163
CHAPTER Xn.
The Fall of the O'Carrolls . . . .177
CHAPTER XHI.
The Defence of the Pale 190
CHAPTER XIV.
Misrule and Oppression 209
CHAPTER XV.
Legal and other Reforms 226
CHAPTER XVI.
Clonmacnoise and Delvin 239
CHAPTER XVII.
More Recent Events in the County. . . 250
CHAPTER XVIII.
Irish Customs and Curiosities .... 268
Appendix 293
Index 306
THE
MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The Early Peoples of Erin.
Keating, in the preface of his History of Ireland,
complains of the manner in which the ancient Irish
have been misrepresented by foreign historians.
Strabo, for instance, declared that the Irish were
cannibals. Solinus asserted that there were no bees
in Ireland — a falsehood rebutted by another foreigner,
Camden, who stated that the multitude of bees is so
great that they are to be found not only in hives, but
also in the hollow places of the trees and ground.
Pomponius Mela represented the Irish as " ignorant
of every virtue." " That ignorant and malicious
writer," Giraldus Cambrensis, stated that the kingdom
paid tribute to King x-^rthur in A.D. 519, and added
insult to injury by describing the Irish as an inhos-
pitable race (gens inhospita), whereas Stanihurst
testifies to their hospitality in the sentence : " The
Irish are truly the most hospitable men, and you
cannot please them better than by visiting them
frequently and without invitation." Stanihurst him-
self receives the vials of Keating's wrath for his state-
ment that " the meanest scullion that lives in the
English province would not give his daughter in
marriage to the most noble'prince of the Irish " : and
2 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
(or his uaconiplimenttry remarks to the Irish language,
which he" regretted was' not expelled with the Irish
natives from Fingall, Stanihurst was altogether
ignorant of the mellifluous language, and, therefore,
was unqualified, in Keating's opinion, to express his
views on the subject. Stanihurst went still further,
and although, as Keating remarks, he had no notion
of music, harmony, or distinction of sound, had the
audacity to pronounce the Irish "an unmusical
nation." Keating wonders that this second Midas,
on whose head Apollo, the God of song, would un-
doubtedly have fixed the ears of an ass, had not
consulted Giraldus Cambrensis, that ''inexhaustible
fund of falsehood," as he elsewhere describes him, who
states in his History : " I find the diligence of that
nation praiseworthy in the use of musical instruments,
with which they are better provided than any other
nation." This testimony to the musical talent of the
Ireland of the twelfth century is corroborated by the
resemblance that has been discovered between the
Irish melodies and the Norse, which must have been
familiar to Ireland for some centuries at the time of
Giraldus, and by the fame of the ancient Irish harpers.
The present writer has heard people say that the
Irish peasantry of the present age have no ear for
music, and that part singing, which comes naturally
to their Welsh brethren, is only learnt with great
difficulty by the Celt on this side of the Channel. Be
that as it may, there are few nations as susceptible to
the charm of sweet sounds, or as subject to the sway
of melody; while the Welsh Giraldus praised the
Irish melodies of his age for their sweetness, swift-
ness, and " Concordia discors." Then Spenser provokes
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF ERIN 3
Keating's wrath by his audacious attempt to trace the
pedigrees of the Irish gentry, and to assert that the
MacMahons, who were Hneally descended from Colla
da Chrioch, son of Eochaidh Doimlen, son of Cairbre
Lifeachair, Monarch of Ireland, were of EngHsh
extraction, and descended from the house of Fitz Urse.
Many, too, are the deficiencies of Meredith Hanmer,
Doctor of Divinity, and the defects of his Chronicle,
which commences with laudable precision ''three
hundred yeeres after the flood." For had he not the
hardihood to challenge S. Patrick's right to be called
the Apostle of Ireland, and to mention his predecessors
Colman, Declan, Ailbe, Ibar, and Ciaran, and to ascribe
the discovery of S. Patrick's Purgatory to another
Patrick, an abbot who lived in A.D. 850. But, worst
of all, he ventured to deny the Irish origin of our
island Hercules, Fionn MacCumhail, and to give
him a Danish (Keating wrongly says " British ">
pedigree.
In a word, all these writers and others, Barclay and
Moryson among them, were, according to Keating,
utterly devoid of the qualifications required by an
historian, and whether " from malice or ignorance "
were unfit to essay the task. They seemed to follow
the example of the beetle which selects the nastiest
thing, rather than that of the bee which chooses the
sweetest places to alight upon. They wilfully pass
over all that was commendable and noble in Irish life
and customs, and " dwell upon the manners of the
lower and baser sort of people." Those of us who
have read the histories of which Keating complains
can not but feel that he had just cause of complaint ;
and that the worst types of Celtic life were described,
4 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
while the best were overlooked, simpl}- because the
writers were " beetles " not " bees."
But here it to be observed that if the history of
Ireland has been drowned by the cold water of its
foes, it has been no less buried under the dry dust of
its friends, for there can be nothing less stimulating to
the eager student than the Irish annals, say those of
the Four Masters. Here a veritable mine of informa-
tion lies buried beneath a pile of ancient dust, which,
like the gravel dust of Europe, contain many treasures
for those who can afford the time and means to dig
and delve through la}'ers of waste and worthless heaps
before they strike the vein of ore.
On the other hand, no one could describe Keating
as dull. There are many entertaining pages in his
work, and even if one takes exception to the length
and doubtfulness of the pedigrees and legends he re-
cords, one cannot but admire his ingenuity. Is it not
refreshing to a tired imagination to be informed that
hundreds of years before the Deluge, Ireland was
visited by three daughters of Cain, with Seth, the
son of Adam or MacAdam, the ancestor, doubtless, of
the MacAdams, \\'ho gave their name to Cadamstown ?
For, as the ancient poet sang :
The three fair daughters of the cursed Cain,
With Seth, the son of Adam, first beheld
The Isle of Banba.
These distinguished dames, one of whom, Banba,
gave her name to the island, were followed in remote
ages by three strangers, Caffo, Laighne, and Luasat,
precisely " twelve months before the Flood." But
these unhappy " men of strength and fit for war,"
who were driven here by a storm, were unfortunately
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF ERIN 5
drowned in the Deluge at a place called Tuath Inbhir.
But, according to "some records of the kingdom,"
which Keating mentions "out of respect," the first
really historic personage who visited the island was
Ceasar, the daughter of Bith, a niece of Noah, but
whom the patriarch refused to receive into the Ark.
She and some of her companions, whose names have
been preserved in the Psalter of Cashel, with due con-
sideration for future historians, landed in Connacht.
There Bith, Ceasar's husband, died on Sliabh Beatha,
now Slieve Beagh, on the borders of Tyrone, where
his cairn is shown at Carnm6r, near Clones, and
Ceasar herself died of grief at Carn Ceasra in Connacht
"six days before the rising of the Flood." Camden
had, therefore, some ground for his assertion that
" the island was not without reason called the ancient
Ogygia by Plutarch, for they begin their histories
from the most remote memory of antiquity, so that
the antiquities of other nations are modern compared
with theirs."
Noah's descendants in the order Japhet, Ham, and
Shem seem to have been represented by the ancient
inhabitants of Eire. Parthaldn, a Scythian, with his
comrades were of the posterity of Japhet, according to
Dr. Meredith Hanmer and Keating. Parthalon, how-
ever, who happened to be a parricide, " a boy who
killed his father," was followed by the furies from
Greece, and he, with all his followers, died of a plague,
within the space of a week, at Benn-Eadair, or the Hill
of Howth, having possessed the plain of Sean-mhagh-
Ealta Edair (Shan-va-alta-edar), or the old plain of
the flocks of Edar, which was also called Maghnealta,
or Moynalty, the plain of flocks, which lay between
6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Howth and the Dublin Mountains, or may be the old
name of Clontarf, as Professor Murphy suggests, the
flocks being the sea-birds. On the Dublin hills
near Tallaght there may be to-day sepulchral remains
of Partholanus and his band ; for Tallaght was known
to the Four Masters as Taimhleacht-mhuintire-Phartha-
16in, or the plague-grave of Parthalon's people. In
the time of Partholanus, according to Hanmer, " many
of the cursed seed of Cham (Ham) arrived on this
island with their captain Oceanus, the sonne of Cham,
called of some Mena, of Moses Mitzraim." These
were of great stature and strength, and after a time
engaged in battle with the sons of Japhet, who anni-
hilated them, but, neglecting the burial of the dead,
died themselves of the plague which left its name
to Tallaght. This was the end of Partholanus,
and the country was desolate once more, '* ex-
cepting a few silly soules scattered in remote
places."
Then Nemedius, of Japhet's line, came with his
three sons, and partitioned Ireland between them, and
in his time, descendants of Shem appeared in the
shape of "vagabond Africans." These were quite
celebrated people in their way. They rejoiced in the
name of Fomhoraigh, which Keating explains as sea-
robbers, but which is anglicised into Fomorians.
Piracy was their occupation, as it was of the Vikings
of a later and more prosaic age. These sea-robbers
seemed to have been great builders. Keating tells
us that they built two royal seats, one called Cinneich
at loubhniallain, and the other, Rath Ciombhaoith in
Seimhne, for the Nemedians, who rewarded their
architects by slaying them, and with Irish irony
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF ERIN 7
giving them a burial in Urra firma at Doire Lighe,
or the stone by the oak tree.
It would be of great advantage to us if we could
locate these places. There are, however, many
localities of the name Cinneich, the head or the hill of
the horse, which may appear in Kinnetty as well as in
Kineagh, in the south as well as in the north of
Ireland. loubhniallain may stand for Uibh-Niallain
(uibh, abl. case of Ua, grandson, generally written O),
and would correspond, therefore, with Hy Niallain, an
ancient tribe, who occupied the baronies of O'Neil-
land in Armagh. The other place, Raith Ciombhaoith,
may well be called after Cimbaoth, one of the famous
trio of kings, who agreed to reign for seven years in
alternate succession, and who had the good or bad
fortune to marry Macha of the golden hair, daughter
of Aedh-ruadh, the first of the three Kings, and
foundress of Ard-macha or Armagh, and to escape, as
far as we can tell, from the servitude to which that
determined dame consigned the sons of Dithorba, the
third monarch, of whom Tigernach writes. But this
may be too venturesome an anticipation. It is, how-
ever, quite possible that Ptolemy, the geographer of
the second century, refers to the place. For he
mentions Isamnion Akron, or the Point of Seimhne
(now Island Magee ?), in which district the Rath of
Cimbaoth was built. Nor is it improbable that one of
these " royal seats " was further south. For we are
informed by Keating that the first battle which
Nemedius fought with the Fomorians after their
coming was at Sliabh Bladhma, or the Slieve Bloom
Mountains, in which district was the ancient Kinnetty,
mentioned in the Felire of Aengus, which resembles
S THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Kinneich, as well as O'NeiU's town and O'Neill's well.
Accordingly, it is highly probable that Nemedius, if
he ever existed, established himself in two royal seats,
from one of which he could control the north, and from
the other, the south, ^^■est, and east of the country.
The necessity of this is apparent when we notice how
ubiquitous the Fomorians were, the first battle they
fought being in the midlands at Sliabh Bladhma, the
next in Connacht, the third in Dalriada in x-\ntrim,
and the fourth in Leinster. But at last these terrible
sea-rovers, who had originally established themselves
in an island off the Donegal coast, known as Tory
Isle, not, however, from its political aspect, but from
its torach, or tower-like, appearance, overwhelmed
Nemedius and his people, and gave their name to the
Giant's Causeway, which is called in Irish Clochan-na-
bhFomharach (Clohan a vowragh) or the stepping-
stones of the Fomorians.
After the Fomorians came other invaders, the
Firbolgs and Tuatha-de-Danann. One division of the
former people landed at Inver Domnainn, the river
mouth of the Domnann or Firdomnainn, men of the
deep pits, now called Muldowney, which means the
whirlpool of the Domnann. and is probably the
treacherous channel formed by the sea at ]\Ialahide.
It is also interesting to note that one of these Firbolg
princesses, Eadar, the wife of Gann, one of their five
commanders, gave her name to the promontory now
called Howth Head (Howth = Head in Danish, cf
German Haiipt), but which was then styled Benn
Eadair, the point of Edar. Ptolemy, the geographer of
the second century, mentions a place, Edrou Heremos,
or desert of Eder, opposite Eblana, ancient Dublin,
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF ERIN 9
which preserves the name of this lady. It is
also said to be taken from a Tuatha-De-Danann
chief, Eadar, son of Edgaeth. The Firbolgs, accord-
ing to Keating, were the exiled Nemedians, who
had sailed to Greece to escape the tyranny of the
Fomorians, and there grew and multiplied until the
Grecians rose to oppress them. They then set sail,
and safely landed on the Irish shore.
The Firbolgs were divided into three tribes. Their
first king was Slainge, and their last was Eochaidh,
and for fifty-six years they reigned. Eochaidh, the
sixth and last of these, was a good and wise monarch,
who sought to restrain the violence of his subjects by
making good laws. In his days " peace and plenty
cheered the labouring swain." For we read that,
'' in his time the weather was temperate and healthy,
the produce of the earth was not damaged by any
immoderate rains, and plenty and prosperity prevailed
throughout the whole island." How pleasant must have
been the climate of Eire in those days, and how sadly
it has altered for the worse ! This king is said to have
wedded Taillte, daughter of Magm6r, the king of Spain,
in whose honour the assembly of Tailltean was insti-
tuted by Lewy of the long hand, one of the Tuatha-de-
Danann kings. Taillte is said to be buried at Tailte (gen.
Tailltenn), now Teltown, in Meath. As for Eochaidh
himself, he perished in battle v/ith the three sons of
Neimhidh, son of Badhraoi, at Magh Tuiridh, the
plain of the tower, to be identified doubtless with
Moytura, not far from the interesting village of Cong,
which, with the ruins of its noble abbey, stands on the
cumhga or isthmus connecting Loughs Corrib and
Mask in Galway. Badhraoi is a strange name, and
10 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
may be connected with the old Irish Badh-ruadh, or
God of Wind, who corresponded with the Gallic deity
Vintios, and if so would be an instance of the manner
in which pagan pantheons were filled with deified
mortals. A short while previous to his death Eochaidh
had been routed by the Tuatha-de-Danann under
their king, Nuadha of the silver hand (Airgiod
lamh). These people are said to have possessed
wonderful skill in magical arts, by which they im-
pressed the natives whom they subjugated, and by
whom they were practically deified after they in their
turn were vanquished by the fierce Milesians. A
poem in the Book of Invasions describes by " what
charms, what conjuration, what mighty magic " they
won the land. One of their powers was to " raise a
slaughter'd army from the earth, and make them
breathe and fight again." Our chief interest in these
cryptic people is centred in the four curious articles
which they are said to have brought with them from
Denmark, namely the Lia Fail, or stone of destiny,
because a very ancient prophecy foretold that, at what-
ever place the stone should be preserved a person of
the Scythian or Scottic race would have the
sovereignty ; the sword of Lug (Luighaidh) the
Long-handed, the spear of the same warrior, and
the cauldron or girdle (coi|\e) of their deity Daghda.
These settlers occupied the land for "a hundred and
ninety-seven years," as an ancient poem, preserved in
the Psalter of Cashel, states with remarkable precision.
Their divinities were many and various, male and
female. Keating mentions Badhbha, Macha, and
Moriogan, and states that the three Danann princes,
Macuill, Maceacht, and Mac Greine, who divided the
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF. ERIN u
land between them, were so called from the objects
of their worship, Macuill adoring a log of hazel wood
(cuill), Maceacht a ploughshare (ceacht), and MacGreine
the sun (grian). It is more than likely, however, that
these patronymics were given for other reasons. In a
manuscript of the Seabright Collection, used by
General Vallancey, if we can depend upon him, a list
of the inferior Tuatha-de-Danann deities is given. One
of these is Eochaid il-dathach. i.e., Dagh-da. Il-dat-
hach signifies '' many-coloured." Daghda was one of
the Danann kings. The point to which attention is here
directed is the name Eochaid, which means horseman,
and to which we shall return. Suffice it to sa}^ here that
Eochaidh, or horseman, was the name borne by the
last of the Firbolg kings, by princes of the Tuatha-de-
Danann, and also by the kings of the Milesians.
The Milesians came to Ireland, according to the
" faithful Cormac MacCuillenan in his Psalter of
Cashel" (so Keating), about 1,300 years before the
birth of Christ; but, according to that "idle writer"
and " inexhaustible fund of falsehood," Giraldus
Cambrensis, during the reign of Gorgundus, who
lived not much more than 350 years before Christ.
This is a difference of nearly 1,000 years, a com-
paratively short term considering the obscure ages
of which we are treating.
The Milesians, or Goidels or Celts, came ostensibly
to avenge the death of a distant relation, one Ith,
commander of the Gadelians, " who was inhumanly
slain in defiance of the established laws of nature and
of nations " by the three reigning princes of the
Tuatha-de-Danann. Ith is said to have discovered the
island with an ancient telescope from the pharos of
12 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Brigantia, or more probably to have become acquainted
with it in his piratical raids, or through the political
relations between the ancient Spaniards and Irish,
which had been cemented on more than one occasion by
marriage. At all events, Ith, " the son of Breogan, son
of Bratna," " son of Magog, son of Japhet, son of Noah,
son of Lamech" (Psalter of Cashel), and uncle of ]\Iilesius,
encountered the three sons of Cearmad, son of
Daghdha, kings of the Tuatha-de-Danann, who were
quarrelling over some family jewels at a place called
Oileach Neid, on the borders of Ulster, and in a
charitable, we had almost said Christian, but that
would have been a slight anachronism, spirit preached
to them an eloquent sermon of peace and goodwill,
and induced them to shake hands and be friends.
Well had it been for Ith if he had not undertaken the
role of peacemaker, for the three brothers united
their forces against him, and slew him, for all his
courage and eloquence, as he was returning to his
ship, with a conscience void of offence and a sm^all
escort, in Magh Itha. Then Lughaidh, the son of
Ith, carried back the dead body of Ith to Spain. The
Book of Conquests states that Tor Breogain, the tower
of Brigantia, was the place. After having exposed
the slain hero's body on the sea shore, in the sym-
pathetic presence of the family of Milesius and the
sons of Breogan, the son related the story of his
father's •'' taking-off." The Milesian warriors, stand-
ing round the speaker in a grim circle, moved by the
sight of their sweet comrade's wounds, "poor, poor
dumb mouths," and by the son's " power of speech,"
felt " the dint of pity." Tears trickled down their iron
cheeks ; and they expressed their feelings after the
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF ERIN 13
manner of their forefather, and vowed to sacrifice the
blood of the sons of Cearmad '' to the manes of their
great-uncle/' just as the Gauls of Caesar's time
'' sacrificed human beings as victims." Their Celtic
blood was up, the mischief was afoot. One s}''mpathises,
however, with the interesting Tuatha-de-Danann princes
wrangling over heirlooms, and losing their kingdom
and their beautiful and virtuous princesses, Fodhla
and Banba, and Eire, who fell in battle v/ith the Goidil.
The Milesians were a wandering race, who even-
tually found a resting place in our little island. They
are said to have been of Scythian blood and Japhet's
noble line. They had, it is said, some intercourse
with Moses, but no Irish chronicler gives them a
Semitic origin, which fact tells somewhat against the
British-Israel theory. From Magog, the son of
Japhet, was descended the Scythian ruler, Feinius or
Fursa, whose son, Niul, is said to have married
Pharoah's daughter, the beautiful Scota. Their son,
Gadelus, is the reputed ancestor of the Goidels or
Gaels. According to the royal records of Tara, he
was attacked and bitten, when a babe, by a serpent,
but w^as healed by the wand of Moses, who is said to
have foretold that the countries where Gadelus, or any
of his race should live, would not be invested with any
reptile or venomous beast. This is said to be the
reason why the serpent was a favourite device of
the Milesians, appearing on their banners and in
their scroll work. The learning of Feinius, or Fursa
and Niul, his son, was marvellous for their age.
Niul, we are told in all seriousness, " erected schools
and seminaries, and taught the sciences and the uni-
versal languages to the youth of Egypt." Unfortunately
14 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
for his people, Niul sympathised so greatly with
the down-trodden Hebrews, that he drew upon
his own race the vengeance of another Pharoah.
They, under the guidance of Sru, and not Gadelas, as
Hector Boetius and " such pretenders to history "
relate, sailed away in four ships to the Isle of Crete,
to escape the might of Eg}'pt. From Crete they
removed to Scythia, thence to Gothland, thence to
Spain, back again to Egypt, back again to Gothland,
back again to Spain, and, finally, these unsettled, but
unconquerable colonists, after wanderings to which
those of '' much-enduring " Ulysses and " pious "
^neas were child's play, came to Ireland, where they
pitched their tents for aye. This is the record in the
chronicles of Ireland, and, as Keating says — although all
may not assent — unless we depend upon their authority,
it is impossible to arrive at any certainty regarding
the antiquities and the religious and political state of
the kingdom. It has been the custom to regard the
Celts as a branch of the great Aryan race, which had
its original home in the northern hills of India. But
some philologists, Prof. Anwyl among them, arguing
from the resemblance of Celtic forms of speech to the
Latin, hold that there must have been some common
centre of Aryan- Celtic speech in Europe, from which
the Indo-European languages could have radiated
eastwards and westwards, towards India, Persia,
Armenia, on the one side, and Greece, Gaul, and
Britain, Italy and Ireland on the other. This centre
is supposed to have been the Danube valley of the
modern Carinthia. But while the Aryan race im-
pressed its language, social customs, and military ideas
upon the peoples it conquered, right, left, and centre,
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF ERIN 15
it was not always successful in making the conquered
races accept their religious views — whatever they may
have been — or in preventing their retention of myths,
legends, and national folk-lore. This is, probably, the
reason why so man}^ incongruous ideas are found in
the Celtic religions.
The Milesians derive their name from Milesius, or
Gallamh grandson of Breogan (Bryan ?), from whom
the Brigantes of Spain, according to Keating, were
descended. Milesius was like Moses in this, that he
never set foot upon the promised land, dying before
the expedition set forth to avenge the death of his
uncle, Ith. However, his widow, Scota, an Egyptian
princess, and his eight sons, Donn, Ir, Aireach
Feabhruadh, Arranan, Colpa, Heber, Heremon, and
Amergin took part in the invasion which the uncles
of Milesius organised. That expedition was disastrous
to many of these ; for Scota perished, with five of her
sons, before the country was eventually divided
between Heber and Heremon. The grave of the
heroic Scota, who fell at Slieve Mis, in Kerry, is said
to be seen between Slieve Mis and the sea, and is by the
Finglas stream in Glenscoheen, or Scota's grave.
Bladh, a son of Breogan, was slain on the hills
which are now called the Slieve Bloom (Sliabh
Bladhma), an interesting connection with the modern
King's County. Other Milesian warriors, Fuad and
Cuailgne, gave their names respectively to the
mountains of Slieve Fuad, the highest of the Fews
Range in Armagh and the Cooley Mountains (Sliabh
Cuailgne) near Dundalk. The brave Tuatha-de-
Danann princes, whose magic proved ineffectual
against the Gael, were slain, and their forces scattered
1 6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
at the decisive battle of Tailltenn. Then Heremon
and Heber, sons of Milesius, the former in the north,
and the latter in the south, reigned peacefully over
their provinces, until the wife of Heber, coveting the
three vales of Erin, sowed strife between the brothers,
who, nnall}^ settled their dispute on the plains of
Geisiol — the modern Geashill — in Leinster, where
valiant Heber fell. Heremon then succeeded to the
throne, and he was followed by his three sons, after
whom the sons of Heber Fionn seized the throne,
which became a bone of contention between the
descendants of Heremon and those of Heber Fionn,
and passed now into the hands of one party, and anon
into the hands of the other.
Geisioll, or Geashill, in the King's County, is in
the ancient territory of Offaly. We read in Keating
(p. 154) that Eithrial, King of Ireland, grandson of
Heremon, in 2766 A.M., cut down a great wood, called
Magh Geisile, at lobh Failge, which is the same
plain of Geashill in Offaly ; and another at Magh
Rath at lobh Eachach. Is it possible to identify this
latter place with the locality now known as Thomas-
town, but formerly as Rath, some three miles from
Kinnetty ? lobh Eachach may stand for the
O'Eachach, the descendants of the Eochaidh, who
gave his name to the latter place.
CHAPTER II.
The Race of the Horseman and an Ancient
Relic.
The Introductory Chapter dealt lightly with the general
history of the early peoples of Eire. In this we shall
deal more particularly with the midlands of Ireland, the
country around Kinnetty, and shall select the kings of
the name Eochaidh, who were connected with the
district. Prof Connellan gives an interesting note on
the name Eochaidh in his translation of the Four
Masters (p. 41): "Eochaidh, pronounced Eochy or
Eohy, anglicised Achy, and latinized Eachadius,
Accadius, and Achaius, a name of many kings and
chiefs, is derived from Each or Eoch, a steed, and
therefore signifies a horseman or knight." O'Flaherty
in his Ogygia gives the name as Echod or Etac.
Donovan in the Book of Rights interprets Eochaidh
as eques or horseman. O'Reilly in his Irish Dictionary
gives eocxM-D, Eochaidh, a man's name, with genitive
GxiCAC. In Colgan's Life of S. Nennius the same
genitive is given. This being aspirated would be
pronounced Eathach, and is probably the latter portion
of the name Kinnetty. We shall now see that quite
a number of kings of the name Eochaid were
connected in some way with the districts around
Kinnetty.
The first of these was Eochaidh Eadgothach
(2866 A.M.), or as O'Halloran explains it, Eochaidh
" of many colours." If that be correct it would be
this Eochaidh and not his predecessor Tighernmhas
B
1 8 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
who established the law of colours by which the colour
of one's coat or dress was regulated, a slave being
allowed but one colour, a soldier two, an officer three,
a gentleman who could entertain, four, a nobleman
five, the bards, historians and royal family six. Another
derivation of the name would connect it with singeing.
This would recall the fact that it was an Eochaidh
who is alleged to have introduced the custom of driving
horses and cattle between the fires of Beal or the sun,
on the day of Beltaine (u be^l-cme), which, accord-
ing to Cormac's Glossary, means the two fires which
used to be made by the lawgivers or Druids with long
incantations, when they drove the cattle between them
to guard against the diseases of each year. This day
is said to have been the first day of summer, the first
of May. O'Donovan's Almanac (Celtic Society) for
May, 1848, gives " May- Day, i, Monday, La Beall-
taine, SS. Philip and James, S. Mochoemius, Abbot of
Terryglass. There is a Bell hill in Clareen, near
Kinnetty, where S. Kiaran is said to have rung his
bell, but which is more likely to be connected with the
ancient fires of Beal-taine kindled originally in honour
of the Sun-god, but kept burning to the glory of the true
God by S. Kiaran, who, according to Colgan, " arranged
that the paschal fire kindled in his monastery should
not be extinguished." Mr. Cooke, a writer of 1850,
stated that " this fire still continues to be ignited with
sparks from flint on every Easter Saturday." The
next Eochaidh was Eochaidh Faobharghlas, because of
his green flashing brand. He is said to have been an
early ancestor of the O'Carrolls, princes of Ely, in the
present King's County, being descended from Heber
Fionn. He was a great destroyer of woods, having
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 19
cut down seven forests, one known as Magh Smear-
thuin — with which compare the Irish word Smearoit,
a burning coal — which Keating locates in I've Failge
(Offaly) also in the King's County. The next Eochaidh,
called Mumho, was grandson of the last named, and,
according to Keating, began to reign A.M. 2954
(B.C. 1050). He is said to have wrested the throne
from Fiachadh Labhruine, whom he defeated at Beal-
gadain, a place which may be identified with the
present Ballygaddy, often known as the " Three
Sisters," where three roads meet between Birr and
Leap Castle. He is also said to have fought a battle
at Claire, Clara or Moyclare, near Ferbane in the same
county. The Four Masters tell us that this Eochaidh
was " of Munster." It is probably after him that
Munster or Mumhan-ster is called. In those days the
district of Ormonde which embraces the southern por-
tion of King's County belonged to Munster, being as
its name implies East Mumha or Munster. There
are two places near Kinnetty which may be connected
with this king, Munnu or Money near Frankford, in
the district of Fearcall, and Lismoney, a hill near
Knock-na-man, which is derived from Lios or lis, a
fortified residence, and may mean the fort of Mumha
or Mumho. This is as probable as the other ex-
planation, the fort of the brake (Muine), which,
suggested the name of Moneyguyneen — the rabbit's
brake — now the residence of Mr. Assheton Biddulph,
the Master of the King's County Hunt. It is said
that a prince of the name Eochaidh lived at a place
called Raheenevil (or the fort of the burning coal,
e^tD^U) near Frankford, Birr. The next Eochaidh
was celebrated as Ollamh Fodhla. or learned doctor.
20 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
The Four Masters and the Book of Clonmacnoise give
Eochaidh as the name of this Ollamh Fodhla, the
Irish Confucius. This Eochaidh wore a girdle and is
said to have loosed it when about to speak at the
assemblies. He made good laws, such as (i) Let no
man slay his fellow ; (2) Let not man take of the
belongings of another man's property ; (3) Let not
the lips utter what the mind knoweth to be false ;
(4) Man be merciful ; (5) Let man do ever as he
would be done by. When his son Fionn was going
to Munster our Irish lawgiver said to him : " When
mirth and joy prevail, gravity and wisdom are out of
time. In Muma all is sport and dance and song and
music and the chase and drink. Whilst thou abidest
be as Muma in all but the last." Even in these early
days Munster was famous for the hard drinking and
fearless riding of its sons. The son of this learned
monarch was Eochaidh, king of Uladh (Ulidia =
Ulster) and also Ard-ri or High King. He was
specially skilful in the management and breeding of
horses. The next Eochaidh was called Uairceas, from
the small skiffs which he caused to be made, uairceas
being the Irish for boat. This boat was doubtless
similar to the corach or coracle used in the western
portions of the country. This monarch was twentieth
in descent from Eochaidh Faobharghlas, the ancestor
of the O'CarroUs of Ely, and was slain by Eochaidh,
called Fiadhmhuine the hunter, '' because he took great
pleasure in the chasing of deer and other wild beasts,
which he frequently hunted in the woody and wild
parts of the country ; " Fiad means deer and viuine
signifies brake. This hunter of the line of Heremon
was slain by Luighaidh Lamhdhearg or Lewy of the
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 21
Red Hand, of the line of Heber Fionn and son of
Eochaidh Uaircheas, the boat-builder. He was suc-
ceeded by other Eochaidhs, the most important of
whom was Eochaidh Foltleahan or the Broad Locks,
who began his reign 254 B.C., and seems to have met
his end in the district of Ely O'CarroU, of which
princely line he was also ancestor. For he was slain
by Fergus Fortamhaill (vigorous), a valiant and
strong-bodied prince, who may have left his name to
the Fortal cross roads between Kilcolman and Kin-
netty. The next Eochaidh was Feidhlioch, who
commenced to reign about B.C., 64, and who was the
father of the celebrated Queen Maev (Meidhbh) or Mab
of Connacht. The king and his counsellors determined
that a royal seat should be made in Connacht, and
Tinne, one of the princes of Connacht, having offered
a site for the palace was rewarded with the hand of
the princess. The ditch and rath were made, and a
poet describes how the Rath Eochaidh became known
as the Rath Cruachan, after Cruachan Crodhearg, the
mother of the illustrious Mab. Rath Crochan is
doubly interesting to us because of S. Patrick's visit
to its fountain, where he had the interview with the
daughters of the Ard-ri of Ireland, Ethne the Fair
and Fedelm the Red. In the sepulchre of the kings
close by this fortress Dathi, the brave Irish prince,
who is said on good authority to have assisted the
Romans in the Gallic campaign of 428 A.D., is buried
according to the Irish poem of Torna-Eices
Under thee is the King of the men of Fail (Ireland), Dathi son of
Fiachra, the Good.
Croghan, you have hidden him from the Galls, from the Goidels.
Under thee is Dungalach the swift, who led the king (Dathi) beyond
the seas.
22 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
This Eochaidh was a great prince, he restored the
laws and encouraged the sciences.
The next Eochaidh (a.m. 3952. Keating ; Ogy^ia
A.M. 3934, B.C. 70) was called Aireanih (grave) from
having introduced the custom of burying the dead in
graves, considering it neither decent nor secure to
raise cairns of stones over their bodies. He was slain
by Siodhmall (a fairy of the hill). The next Eochaidh
was called Ainchean, a depraved person who caused
the unhappy death of two fair princesses, the daughters
of King Tuathal, and in consequence brought the
terrible tax called Boroimhe Laighean, or tribute of
Leinster upon his kingdom. The story is fully given
in Keating's history. Suffice it to say : —
Two princesses, the daughters of Tuathal,
The fair Dairine and the lovely Fithir
Fell by the deed of Eochaidh Ainchean,
S. Moling in after years obtained a remission of the
taxes from Fianachta, by a verbal quibble, requesting
a respite until a certain Monday but employing an
idiom which meant Doomsday.
We now come to three celebrated kings, Cathaoir
Mor, Conaire and Oilioll Olum. From Cathaoir
Mor, the father of twenty sons, are descended the
O'Connors of Offaly, the O'Dempseys of Clanmalire,
and O'Dunnes through his eldest son, Ros of the
Rings (Failge), all of whom are leading King's County
clans. Conary had three sons by Sarah, daughter of
Conn of the Hundred Battles, called the three Cairbres,
Cairbre Rioghfhada, Cairbre Baschaoin and Cairbre
Muisg. From the eldest of these, Carbery Riada,
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 23
called Reuda by Bede (Ecc. Hist, i, i.), sprang the
Dalriada colony of Scotland : —
The noble tribe of the Dalriads
Descended from the illustrious Conaire.
There were two districts of his name, one in Argyle,
the other in Antrim, to be distinguished from the
Dalaradia or the Pictish colony in the same territory.
From that ancient Jrish colony \\\ Airer-Gaedhil, Arrer
gale or Argyle, the "land of the stranger" came
the Stuart line of kings, from which our king is
descended. Sadhbh, the other daughter of Conn, was
wedded to Oilioll Olum, from whose second son,
Cormac Cas the valiant Dalgcais (more generally
known as the Dalcassian tribe), the O'Bryans, the
MacMahons and MacNamaras claim descent; and
from whose blind son Cian, the O'Carrolls of Ely
sprang. Their brother Eochaidh with seven other
brothers was slain in the battle of Magh Muchruime.
Conn of the hundred battles had a famous brother
Eochaidh Fionn who helped to reinstate Cuchorb, King
of Leinster, in his kingdom, and routed the Munster-
men in Leix and Ossory. The Mumonians or Munster-
men seems to have held possession of Ossory and Leix
at the time, but Eochaidh beat them at all points.
One of the battles was fought at Athtrodain, now
known as Athy, on the river Barrow. The Leinster-
men followed up their advantage, and almost anni-
hilated their foe. In gratitude for his services Cuchorb
made Eochaidh lord of the seven Fothortuaths, while
his general, Laoigseach (Leeshagh) was rewarded with
the district of the Queen's County, known as Laeighis
(Leesh) and anglicised into Leix, the ancient territory
of the O'Moores. About a.d. 250 we find an Eochaidh
2 4 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Kinmarc King of Munster. tn^\t\c^\n in Irish means a
little horse ; tn^^fvcAit means horseman, while kin may
represent cean, head, or kinel, tribe. The chief horse-
man or the tribe of the horseman would be a suitable
name for an equestrian hero. Another Eochaidh worthy
of note was king of Ireland from A.D. 358 to 365. He
was known as Eochaidh Muigmedon or Moyvane, or
the midland plain, and was the father of the celebrated
Niall of the Nine Hostages, and ancestor of the
Southern Hy Nialls, the princes of Meath and the
O'Molloys of Fearcall, an ancient portion of King's
County, coterminous with the parish of Eglish, and also
of the Sliocht Geoilen, or tribe of CuUen, which gave
its name to Drumcullen, one of the most ancient
ecclesiastical localities in Ireland, just outside the
village of Kinnetty. Eochaidh, son of Eana Cinsalach,
king of Leinster, slew the great Niall, who raided
Scotland, and is also said to have harried the Loire
district of France, There was an Eochaidh in the
sixth century styled Muinreamhair, or fat neck, also
called Andoid, or the swift. The annals of Tigernach
for the year 553 A.D. give the note : — " The death of
Eochaidh, the son of king Conla, of Ulster, from whom
the O'Eachi of Ulster sprang." Keating mentions an
Eochaidh of Ulster, first king of the Dalnaruidhe.
Under A.D. 550 Keating gives us Eochaidh, son of
Daniel, as king of Ireland, whose cousin, Fiachadh,
engaged in the bloody battle of Folia and Forthola
against the inhabitants of the districts of Ely and
Ossory, and obtained a complete victory, slaying num-
bers of the enemy. Forthola may be identified with
Fortal in the neighbourhood of Kinnetty and in the
district of Ely O'Carroll. Another Eochaidh, son of
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 25
the Aongus, baptized by S. Patrick, reigned peaceably
at Cashel. In O'Dugan's poem on ''the kings of the
race of Eibhear," there is this mention of him : —
Noble Aongus his son Eochaidh rightly called,
He thirty years succeeded ;
Who patient being and prudently stoute,
His life near Cashel ended.
In the translation of the Book of Rights (p. 226,
Celtic Society's Edition), there is an account of S.
Patrick raising a Danish chieftain of Dublin, one
Eochaidh Balldhearg, or the Red. The record of this
curious revival begins —
The day at which Athcliath arrived
Patrick of Macha of great revenues,
On the same day cruel death had taken off
The only son of valorous Ailpin,
They brought to the descendant of the deacon
The only son of the king of the Galls, the fierce Eochaidh,
To the Apostle it was a reproach —
*' If thou shouldst bring a soul unto him,
0 cleric pure and powerful,
1 will submit to thee at Coill Cheanainn
And the Galls of the green lands shall submit to thee.
They went round him thrice right-hand-wise
So that he rose up into life
The comely hero, the noble Eochaidh.
We have thus seen that Eochaidh was a favourite
name of the pagan Irish princes, many of whom
such as Eochaid Faobharghlas, the ancestor of the
O'Carrolls ; Eochaidh Broadlocks, who was slain at
Fortal ; Eochaid Munho, who may have given his
name to Lismoney and defeated his predecessor at
Ballygaddy near Kinnetty ; Eochaidh Muigmedon or
Moyvane, who was the ancestor of the O'Molloys ;
Eochaid Fat Neck, from whom the O'Eachi sprang,
and Eochaidh, the son of Aongus, who resided at
Cashel, had various connexions with the midland
26 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
districts of Ireland, especially the vicinity of Kinnetty.
This would point us to a solution of the name
Kinnetty.
Dr. O'Donovan, in a note to a passage on the Four
Masters, says : — " Kinnitty (ce^n eicij) i.e., the head
of Etech, so called according to a note in the Felire
of Aengus at the 7th April, from Etech, an ancient
Irish heroine, whose head was interred there." There
appears to be some confusion here. Etech was asso-
ciated with the neighbouring parish of Ettagh, and
may have some connexion with Kinnetty. But the
tradition may point to the burial of some ancient relic
in the place. It has been said that Eathach is the geni-
tive of Eochaidh, horseman, and taking into account
the number of Eochaidhs connected with Kinnetty, we
may infer that they have given the locality its name.
This inference is strengthened by a find of a small
equestrian statue which was unearthed from an ancient
rath on the Castle Bernard estate known as " the
Moate." This discovery was made in 1850, and is
described by Mr. T. L. Cooke, of Birr. Some of the
labourers informed him that they were engaged in
some work on this rath when they came across several
large stones weatherbeaten as if they had been exposed
to the air before their interment. These were two or
three feet below the surface, and when all the stones
were laid bare, they presented the form of a cross,
which was not unknown to the pagan world. Where the
arms of the cross intersected the shaft this statue of a
male horse, without legs, measuring seventeen inches
from head to tail, was found. The bridle of the horse
serves also as a bit, like those described by Gerald of
Wales. The saddle has a high cantle and pommel,
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 27
the saddle cloths are well padded, and have invected
edges. There is a stirrup for the right foot to give the
rider support when striking, but none on the mount-
ing side. The Irish used both saddle and bridle in
ancient times, although this custom with other
good customs dropped after the decline and fall of
Ireland in mediaeval times. For we read in the Book
of Rights (a.d. 800, p. 208) —
A hundred cows to the brave Ui-Censealaigh,
A hundred steeds by which power is added to the territory,
Ten ships, ten bridles, ten saddles.
The rider is an interesting figure, thick-set, bull-
necked, clean-shaven, with large and truculent features,
clad in a large overcoat, of which there is no opening
in front, and the folds of which are gathered in by a
large girdle. A long, heavy sword, unlike the short
Irish weapon, is visible underneath. A light-fitting
cap covers his head. It was the custom of the Irish
kings to wear a mantle over their sword when riding.
In O'Connor's description of the meeting of Oilioll of
Uladh and Oilioll the Ard-ri (B.C. 594) we are told that
the Ard-ri dismounted, opened the clasp of his mantle,
and laid it on the ground. He also loosed the belt of
the sword and placed it on the mantle, saying — " These
are of peace, let them be hung up in the tent of the
king." The other king when he saw the Ard-ri stand-
ing on the ground also came down from his horse,
loosed the clasps of his mantle ; threw it from him,
and the sheath of his sword he flung away.
A remarkable thing about this horseman is the small
cavity beneath his hands, which was clearly intended
for some object now missing, which might possibly
have been a model of the Lia Fail, to judge from the
2 8 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
depth, clear cut and conical form of the cell. In
Cormac's Glossary there are two lines ascribed
to Guaire, king of Connaught, on the subject of
Marcan, a horseman —
In precious stones are hidden great wonders as in
The stone of Marcan, son of Hugh, son of IMarcene.
One of the Eochaidhs was also called Kenmarc, or
Chief of the Horse. Another Eochaidh surnamed
Gunnat, as an Irish manuscript cited by Dr. Petrie
informs us, removed the Stone of the Hostages from
Temur and carried it to Cruachan. He also describes
the Lia Fail as an idol stone. Was this little horseman
an idol or a statue? It is strange enough that this
horseman has representations of the three magic
things the Tuatha-de-Danann brought to Ireland, the
sword of Lug, the girdle (coire = girdle as well as cauld-
ron) of Daghda, ''which would not fly away from him
like a hidden stag," and the receptacle for the Lia Fail,
It is no less strange that the whole vicinity of the
Slieve Bloom is associated with the horse. Mr. Seward,
in his Topographia Hibernka, described a large
pyramid on these mountains known as Copall-ban, or
white horse. The present writer has not been able to
verify this statement ; but he has been informed on
good authority that there is the shape of a horse
visible on the hills between Mountrath and Clonaslee,
not, however, as prominent a land mark as the White
Horse of Berkshire and its stumpy thorn bush around
which the armies of Alfred and the Danes met with a
shock. There is a well in Drumcullen known as the
Horse Well (cobx^t^-eAC). The Irish set great store
on their horses. In the Leabhar-na-h-Uidhri we find
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 29
one Midir of Brigleigh, which may be the same as Brig-
Eile or Ely-0'Carroll challenging an Eochaidh to a
game of chess, saying : " I shall have for thee fifty
dark grey steeds if thou win the game." There were
clans in the north and south called after Eochaidh,
even the Hy-Eachach of the townland of Armagh in
Down, the Hy-Eachaid of Kinelmeaky, Cork. There
were also Kienachta in Londonderry, and Kienachta
in Cork. The tribe of the Horseman would be a suit-
able name for an Irish tuathor district. This in Irish
would be Kin-Eathach (cme-eAtAc). The image of
the horseman also suggests as a possible derivation
c-Aon-e-At^c, image of horseman, pronounced Kin-
etta. Either of these derivations would agree
with the pronunciation of the natives, Kinnetty.
Could this horseman have been an idol ? We find
many idols and idolatrous customs connected with
horses in the ancient world. Herodotus (iv. 7 1 ) relates
a curious custom of the Scythians, who honoured a
dead king's memory by impaling fifty of his servants
on fifty slaughtered steeds on the mountain side. The
Roman Castor and his brother were mounted on white
steeds. The Northern Woden was represented as
riding on a white horse. This is possibly the reason
why the white horse was placed on the arms of
Hanover. The horse was worshipped by the ancient
Arabs. The god Irru of Ceylon, corresponding with
the sun, is mounted on a white horse, which was also
one of the sacred emblems of ancient Gaul, In the
Museum at Mayence is a bas relief of Epona, the
goddess of horses, on horseback ; and a bronze
image of a horse was found at Neuvy-en-Sullias, and
is now in the Orleans Museum. The Celts of Ireland
30 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
may have had a god Eochaidh corresponding with
Epona of the Galli, who had many animal totems such
as the boar (moch), the bear (artos), the bull (tarvos)
and the ass (mullo). It is quite possible that idolatry
or the worship of images — although none have actually
been found — was practised by the early inhabitants of
Ireland. Crom Cruadh was one of the most celebrated
of these images. He was set up in the plain of Magh
Slecht in Breffny, was worshipped by Tigernmhas, but
was smitten by the crozier of S. Patrick, according to
the Vzta Tertia. Keating informs us of the three
De Danann princes, Macuill, Maceacht, and Mac
Greine, who worshipped respectively a log of wood
(cuill), a ploughshare (ceacht), and the sun (grian),
and also relates that Cormac Mac Art refused to
worship " a log of wood fashioned by the workman's
hand." Some peculiar things have been found and in
strange places, which may be representations of the
Celtic Goddess Ana or Earth Mother, who, "with her
progeny of spirits, springs, rivers, mountains, forests,
trees, and corn, appears to have supplied most of the
grouped and individualised gods of the Celtic
pantheon." (Prof. Anwyl, Celtic Religion, p. 28),
Cormac's Glossary describes her as the mother of the
Hibernian gods, because "she fed the gods well."
There are two hills in Kerry which may be called after
Ana, Da-chich-Danainne ; also a hill called Chich-
awn in the Slieve Bloom. Grotesque representations
of the female have been found in the walls of the old
church of Seirkieran, and also in the castle of Ball}'-
finboy near Finnoe. The late Mr. Cooke stated that
he had in his possession an image called by the
peasantry " the witch," which originally stood in
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 31
Cloghan in the King's County, the old name of which
was Cloghan-na-gcaora, the stone of the sheep,
which represented an Hermaphrodite, one of the
breasts being Hke the sun and the other a crescent Hke
the moon. This image may have given its name to
the neighbouring town of Ferbane, which may be
composed of fear (man) and bean (woman). It is said
that the Druids worshipped the Sun-god Apollo under
the form of an Hermaphrodite. He was worshipped
by the Celts under various forms, one of his names
being Borvo, "the boiler," the god of hot springs,
whence the name Bourbon. Another title was the
Grannos, or Sun, as in Aquae Granni, the old name of
Aix-la-Chapelle. Grian means sun in Irish. Now
the customary offering to the sun was a horse among
the ancient Persians. Xenophon gave a horse to the
priest to be sacrificed to the sun, and Pausanias states
that the Lacedsemonians sacrificed a horse on Mount
Taygetus to the sun. It is said that the Irish, too,
burnt a horse's head in the bonfires of the first of May,
and that the peasantry about Croghan Hill in the
King's County, distinctly visible from the Kinnetty
mountains, were in the habit of sliding down the hill
seated on a horse. We have also some indications that
the sun was worshipped in the district around Kinnetty.
Knock-na-man,the hill that was above the village, means
the hill of the women. Mann also means God. Some
kind of worship was doubtless offered within the remark-
able circle on its summit. Clonbela, in the neighbouring
parish of Drumcullen, means the meadow of Belus or
the sun (clt1Aln-t)ex^l). We have Bell-hill in Seirkieran,
where the fires of Beltaine, on the first of May, were
kindled. We have, in Glendissaun, a glen betu-een
32 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Forelacka Hill and Glen Regan, which, probably
means the Glen of the shrubs, but in which there
may be a reminiscence of the fires of Samhain
(Sowan) of the first of November. And Coola-
crease, near Cadamstown, may mean the retired
place of the sun (crios). While it has been
plausibly suggested that Lacaroe, the red hill side
near Cadamstown, was the ancient Tlachtga which
the Abbe Macgeoghegan stated was in the neighbouring
parish, Clonlisk, and which was the site of the in-
auguration of the fires of Beal tinne. Lacaroe lies also
on the ancient borders of Munster, which embraced
Ormonde, and Meath which almost touches it. And
we read (Keating, p. 233) that Tuathal erected the
royal seat of Tlachtga " in the tract he divided from
Munster and added to Meath." However, this is only
conjecture ; for Tlachtga is believed by others to
be the Hill of Ward near Athboy, but the fact
remains that there is some connexion between the
Celtic pantheon and these ancient hills. Lacaroe
is in the parish of Letter luna, which may be con-
nected with luan the moon, letter meaning hill-side.
There are certain stone piles on the top of the dif-
ferent hills, such as those on Ard-na-h-Eireann and
Botheraphuca, the road of the Sprite. The latter of
these is called in Irish " Fear-brogac " (Far breague),
which means a coarse man and is known as the Hardy
man. This may be identified with Mercury, who was
worshipped in Gaul under the form of Jovantucaros
or lover of youth. It is possible that this equestrian
image may have been originally an idol, although
such idols have rarely if ever been found, representing
some local Celtic or pre-Celtic divinity (for we find
THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN 33
that the Milesians often assimilated cults they cared
not to or could not obliterate), attached to the gens of
the Kin-Eatach or tribe of the Horseman, just as the
Gallic Essus was the patronymic God of the Essui.
The early Christian settlers may have buried this
image and its temple, and ascribed the origin of the
name to the interment of the head of Etech, a Chris-
tian saint. Be this as it may, the visitor who makes
his way through the Slieve Bloom must be awe-struck
at times by the great sense of solitude and by the
vastness and silence in which he moves, and which
suggest the Presence of the Invisible at every step.
For ought that can be proved to the contrary, this
district is the cradle of the Irish people, the ancient
home of the mysterious Tuatha-De-Danann, be they
people or be they fairies. The latter indeed would
have had many a suitable Sidhe or abode in the ancient
mounds and knolls and magic circles of these rolling
hills, in which the race of Eochaidh the Horseman
once held dominion.
Note. — In the Fmr Masters Ivinnetty is spelt in different ways.
e.g. 850, Cind Eitig (gen.) ; 884, Cinn Ettic (gen. case) ; 903 ;
Cindeittig (gen.) ; 121 3, Cinneitig (gen.) ; 1397, Chinn Eitig (gen. not
our Kinnetty). Cf. Ciiid Fine, or children of the family. The form
given for year 884, Cinn Ettic, is most in harmony with the spelling
and derivation suggested in these pages.
Also as regards the hardening of the aspirated consonants in Leinster
place-names, cf. " Stoneybatter " and " Booterstown " (formerly
•' Butterstown ") near Dublin. "Batter" or "butter" is the Irish
bouAji, pronounced boher, as in Boheraphuca. A prosthetic n is some-
times found, e.g., the old name of Lough Neagh is spelt in the Book
of Leinster both Loch-nEthach and Loch-Echach, the lake of Eochaidh
or Eochy. The former supports the suggested explanation of Kinnetty.
CHAPTER III.
The King's County and the Slieve Bloom.
The best way, perhaps, to realize what life in an Irish
sept was like, would be to glance at the annals of some
of the more prominent and pugnacious of the clans.
Of these the O'Connors and the O'Carrolls may be
selected as being the King's County clans. They are
connected with some of the most stirring events in the
history of the conquest of Ireland, and proved a con-
stant source of annoyance to the English Government
and of anxiety to the English settlers of the Pale.
The King's County occupies the midland districts
of Ireland. Sir W. Petty, in his Survey Map (1657)
marked the site of the old church of Birr as " umbilicus
Hiberniae," the central point of Ireland. Archbishop
Ussher mentions that in his life-time a peculiar mass of
limestone in Birr was considered the centre of Ireland.^
This rock stood near the present railway station at
Seffin or Seefin, the seat of Fin (suidhe Finn) outside
the town. Athlone is now regarded as the centre of
Ireland. Giraldus Cambrensis in his "Topography
of Ireland" (iii. 41), which he read with so much
pleasure to himself if not to others, before admiring
crowds in classic Oxford, also described the town of
Birr as the middle point of Ireland, being situated in
the very heart and centre of the country, and makes
some interesting remarks on the colossal stones which
are found in the country, which he described as chorea
^ Elrington's Edition, v. 51 8.
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 35
gigantum, or the dancing places of the giants. It is
matter of regret that this great stone of Seffin, which
was supposed to mark the centre of Ireland, was
removed from its ancient site by Mr. Thomas Steele,
who had it conveyed to Clare in 1833.
The present King's County contained the larger
portion of the ancient kingdom of Hy Failghe or
Offaly, which also comprised certain districts in
Kildare and the territory of the O'Dempseys and
O'Dunnes in Queen's County. From olden times this
district has been associated with the O'Connor sept
In 1 1 70, soon after their landing in Ireland, the
Normans penetrated into these parts. Hugh de Lacy,
perhaps the greatest of the territorial barons, was
slain in 11 86 at Durrow in the northern barony of
Ballycowan. At the time he was engaged in superin-
tending the laying of the foundations of a frontier
castle, for which he had seized portion of the lands of
the ancient abbey, founded by S. Columba in 546.
These lands belonged to an Irish chieftain called Fox,
who sent his foster brother O'Meyey to watch for an
opening against the ruthless invader and desecrator of
Celtic sanctities.
One morning the baron was engaged at the opera-
tions, and to encourage the Irish men ''who had
prayed to be set on work for hyre," as Campion tells
us, seized a pickaxe to show them how to work in the
trench, but as he bent forward with the stroke O'Meyey,
whose tool he had taken, seized his opportunity and
struck down the unsuspecting baron with a blow of
his light axe, and made good his escape to the wood
of Kill clare or Coill-an-chlair, the Wood of the Plain,
which is near Tullamore, and is interesting to
36 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
philologists from the fact that /-// here,like Kyle in Kyle-
more, means wood not church. It is also probable
that Fearcall means the man of the wood rather than
the man of the churches, although the ecclesiastical
name Eglish (ecclesia = church) suggests the latter.
It was a strange coincidence that a Lord Norbury was
attacked and decapitated by a woodman in the same
place centuries after.
The whole district of Offaly was charged in the early
days of the Norman settlement with twelve knights'
fees as being part of Kildare, but when the English
power declined in the following century the Irish clans
who possessed it not only asserted their independence
of the Anglo-Irish Government but imposed a heavy
tax upon the English settlers of Meath and Kildare.
O'Connor of Offaly at one time received annual pay-
ments of £60 from Meath and £20 from Kildare.
The colonists were thus compelled to buy off the
hostility of the Irish as their forebears in Britain had
been reduced to purchase peace from the Danes. But
it w^as not from cowardice but from want of means
and men that the English in Ireland were reduced to
such measures. The terrible invasion of Bruce in
1 3 14 and the wars of the Roses in which the Anglo-
Irish took opposite sides, the Ormondes supporting
the red rose of Lancaster and the Geraldines main-
taining the white rose of York, had completely drained
their resources and left them absolutely at the mercy
of the " wild Irish our enemies " and the '' Irish rebels,"
as Richard II. described them in his famous letter.
In 1480 the whole force at the disposal of " the Castle "
consisted of eighty mounted archers and forty lancers
or mounted '' spears," while the revenues reached the
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 37
large sum of £600. Owing to the weakness of the
Government the English settlers were compelled to
form a league for their own protection under the name
of " The Brotherhood of Saint George." This brother-
hood, consisting of thirteen gentlemen, maintained a
body of some 200 mounted archers, who were under
the command of a captain annually elected, and who
patrolled the borders of the four counties of the
English Pale. This fraternity of arms was formed in
1473. The Irish enemies and rebels were not, however,
to be denied, and often broke bounds in order to harry
their hereditary foes. Accordingly, Sir Edward
Poynings, who was sent over to Ireland by Henry VII.
in 1494 with the twofold object of crushing the
followers of Warbeck and of thrusting back " the wild
Irish," was compelled to adopt other means of defence.
In the Parliament of Drogheda (1494) chiefly noted
for its provision that no parliament should in future
be summoned in Ireland without the king's licence for
its being held and the consent of the king and Privy
Council to any bills it sought to introduce, an Act
was passed enacting that the English settlers in the
marches should build and keep in repair '' a double
ditch of six feet high above the ground." This ditch,
according to the wording of the Act, ran : '' From the
water of An liffy to the mountain in Kildare, from
the water of An Liffy to Trim and so forth to Meath
and Uriel," as Louth was then called. Special care
was taken to save the wall from trespass of man or
beast. For any animal found injuring it in any way
was to be confiscated and sold to repair the ditch,
which was for '' the great succour, comfort and defence
of the county Dublin." This was at once a summary
38 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
and satisfactory plan for keeping one's fences in order,
unless indeed the sheriffs sales of those days realized
as little as those of ours when boycott reduces business
to a farce.
These incidents have been mentioned in order that
the reader may form an idea of the straits to which the
English settlement was reduced by the Irish clans who
were no longer scattered remnants compelled to live in
bog, mountain and forest, but formidable battalions
elated with victory, and invincible but for their own
lack of combination and esprit de nation or patriotism
in the higher sense. In the course of these pages
other facts will be mentioned which throw light on the
unenviable plight of the settlers of the Pale, who were
being slowly but surely crushed out of existence
between the upper millstone in the shape of the
English Parliament and officialism, and the nether
millstone in the form of the Irish septs. Here it is
sufficient to remark that much misery would have
been saved both to the English Pale and the Irish
enemies had the former been either suitably supported
by the home government, or permitted to conciliate
the surrounding septs as they desired.
King's County, on the septs of which we are to fix
our attention, is an interesting district. In many
places it is rendered decidedly picturesque in spite of
its general flatness by the vast extent of bog and
moorland, whose rich and brilliant colouring and ever
varying tints of green and brown and gold, especially
in the setting sun, form a picture not easily transferred
to canvas. The writer will never forget the wonderful
landscape and atmospheric effects as he rode along the
bog road from Tullamore to KInnetty one evening in
KINGS COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 39
October. The moon was young and high in the west
while the western sky was crimson with the rays of
the setting sun, which suffused the very atmosphere
with a soft iridescent glow which was Turneresque in
the extreme. Each small sand hillock, which the
Irish call mullach, and of which there are a few, on
both sides of the tochar or causeway, seemed a verit-
able monaincha or islet in the bog, floating upon the
white watery mist into which the bicycle kept plunging
as into successive waves of the sea, but gradually these
islets vanished into vapour and gloom as the sun sank
beneath the horizon, leaving the darkness a thing to
be realized and felt almost as a living presence, visible,
palpable and most uncanny. As we leave the torach
we notice that these mullachs are but detached portions
of the great line of eskers or sand hills which is an
outstanding feature of the midlands, and is known as
the Esker Riada or " the Ridge." This Esker extends
from Dublin to Gal way and recalls the time when
Ireland was either submerged or was in the grip of
the abiding glacier. It also reminds us of two worthies
of the olden times, Mogh Nuadhat or Owen More, King
of Munster, and Conn of the Hundred Battles, King
of Ireland, the former of whom defeated the latter
and divided the island with him, taking as his share
the south, or Leath Mogha, and leaving the north, or
Leath Chuinn, to Conn. The most prominent of these
mullachs is the long green ridge, verdant with trees
and shrubs, that rises like the back of a great whale
above the parish of Killeigh, or the church in the
field, with its ancient Celtic shrine, stone roofed and
nobly arched, from the summit of which a pleasant
vision of the country can be obtained, its ancient raths
40 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
and cemeteries of the dead. The scenery of the
country is varied by the beautiful range of the Slieve
Bloom hills, which forms a striking barrier for over
twenty miles between the King's and the Queen's
Counties. From Ard-na-h-Eireann, the Height of Erin,
1,733 feet, the greatest elevation of these hills, which
in many places rise to the dignity of mountains, one
may see eleven counties stretching away to the distant
horizon, and catch fleeting glimpses of the sea beyond
the hills of Clare. As one looks to the west, tier after
tier of mountains rise to the view. A remarkable
feature of the nearest range is the so-called Devil's
Bit, the ancient Bearnan Eile or the little gap of
Eile — Bearnan being Irish for a little gap — the
O'Carrolls boundary line. Then as an extension of
this range rise the Silvermines, with the melancholy
traces of an abortive enterprise on their barren slopes.
Beyond these are hills of Newport, denoted by the
noble Keeper, or Slieve Kimalta, and between Castle-
town Arra and Killaloe, which is surrounded by great
dark round hills, the Arra hills rise to a respectable
elevation, Towntinna among them gazing threateningly
over the Leinster plains with the graves of the
Leinstermen on its summit, commemorating the place
where they took their last look at their native woods
and died. Behind all these, with the broad Shannon
and the waters of Lough Derg, tower the mountains
of Clare, Killaloe and Scariff, where Bryan Boroimhe
and the scattered remnants of his followers lived in
the high hills like the wild goats and in the rocks
like the conies until they found themselves strong
enough to strike a decisive blow at Sulchoit for their
homeland against the pagan invader. '' For it was
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 41
better and more righteous," they said, " to do battle
for their inheritance than for land usurped by conquest
and the sword" (Wars of the G. G., p. 69). And
behind and above them all the mountains of Kerry,
great rocky blocks, throw their gaunt shadows over
the scene. These mountain ranges rise one behind the
other like dark masses of deepening shade drawn above
the sky-line, while the great billowy plain that rolls
away beneath our feet presents a varied landscape of
bog and wood, plantation and pasture, glen and vale,
through which streams gleam like silver ribands, as
they glide along their winding course to pay their
tribute to the river. Here are quiet hamlets ; there
solitary homesteads set in brake and scrub, where
foxes make their coverts. Gently rising hillocks
capped with green thickets, Golden Grove being
especially conspfcuous for its striking cluster of fir,
and Knockshegowna or the Fairies' Hill, a solitary
eminence beyond Birr, with the silver Shannon, the
noble boundary of the county, shimmering beyond all,
form an enchanting view even when haze and mist
blur the picture. Here the sportsman may beguile
many a tedious hour, whipping the streams, or shooting
the moors, or walking the hills, or riding to hounds.
Here, too, the lover of nature may find many an
object to interest his mind and many scenes to delight
his soul and quicken his imagination. It is, indeed,
strange that so few English artists visit the midlands
of Eire, where the colouring is so rich and varied, the
air so still and luminous, and the distance forms so
effective a background. One might go far before one
could find more charming scenery or breathe sweeter
air than the Slieve Bloom has in store for the visitor
42 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
to its winding glens, purple hills and tumbling streams.
On their wind-swept but easily reached and rounded
summits that rise above the woods and parks of the
Castletown (Castle Bernard) demesne, one understands
why the Roman poets Lucretius and Virgil described
living as feeding on the breezes, for to breathe the
balmy air is literally to live and emphatically to enjoy
life. Here, too, we stand on ground prolific with Irish
memories, for Bladh, who gave his name to these hills
and whose flagstone is preserved in Lickbla, in West-
meath, was one of the uncles of Milesius ; and this
range of hills is immortalized by Spenser as the
mother of the " Gentle Suir," the " Stubborn Nore,"
and the " Goodly Barrow " —
These three fair sons which being thenceforth pour'd.
In three great rivers ran and many countries scour'd.
Slieve Bloom or Sliabh Bladhma, the hill of Bladh
reaches by no means the highest point in Eire, being
at its greatest elevation but 1,740 feet above the sea
level. O'Dugan, the poet, who sang —
Sliabh Bladhma the Fair is over the head
Of Ossory, above the heights of Eire,
was, therefore, a little out of his reckoning. But
standing on the summit of Ard-na-h-Eireann with one
foot in the King's and the other in the Queen's County,
one looks down upon a hundred realms of ancient
Eire, the rich pasture lands of Ely O'Carroll, Leix,
Offaly, Fearcall, Ossory and other principalities. To
the plains of Ossory at our feet there is an approach
through a narrow gorge between two steep hills,
known as the Gap of Glendine (glen of the race) or
Gleann-doimhin,deep glen, which might easily be held
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 43
by a handful of determined men against a host. As we
gaze down upon these storied plains we cannot but recall
the attack that was made by its chieftain Donough Mac
Giolla Patrick or Gillpatrick upon the splendid regi-
ment of the Dal-gCais tribe as they were returning to
their headquarters at Kincora, Killaloe, from the
battlefield of Clontarf, where they had displayed a
courage and devotion equal to that of the Spartan
band of Leonidas at the pass of Thermophylae when
the Persian hosts were pouring into Greece, whose
epitaph ran with Spartan brevity —
Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here obedient to their laws we lie.
The story is told by the Irish chroniclers and his-
torians and is undoubtedly true. The King of Ossory
had a grudge against Brian Boroimhe, who for all his
splendid qualities, was regarded as a usurper by many
of the Irish chieftains, and formed the design of
attacking the bodyguard of that monarch as they were
returning from the sands of Clontarf through his
country, without their veteran king, and hampered by
sick and wounded — a pitiful but plucky remnant.
Accordingly he sent a messenger to Donough, their
captain, as they lay encamped for the night at Athy,
demanding hostages for the good conduct of his troops
while passing through his lands or else threatening to
oppose the march. Amazed at this treachery, Donough
replied with true Dalcassian spirit that he was prepared
to meet Mac Giolla Patrick — a man for whom he had
a profound contempt — any day in a pitched battle.
And as the messenger kindly but injudiciously advised
him to submit Donough ordered him out of his pre-
sence, saying that he would meet his master and his
44 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
master's men if he had but one man to stand by him.
The Dal-gCais at once set themselves in battle array.
The regiment was divided into three companies. To
one Donough consigned the care of the sick and
wounded, and with the other two he was marching
forth, when the wounded soldiers started up and be-
sought their general not to leave them, but to allow
them to take their usual place in the ranks. As many
of them were unable to stand, stakes were cut from the
trees and driven into the ground, and the wounded
soldiers were tied fast to these stakes, and each
stationed between two unwounded men for mutual
protection and encouragement, while their wounds
were temporarily stopped with moss. O'Halloran
writes : '' Between seven and eight hundred wounded
men, pale, emaciated, and supported in this manner,
appeared mixed with the foremost of the troops ;
never was such another sight exhibited." The men
of Ossory, more noble or more prudent than their
prince, refused to fall upon men who were determined
to conquer or die, as Moore, the Irish poet, wrote —
Forget not our wounded companions who stood
In the day of distress by our side ;
While the moss of the valley grew red with their blood
They stirred not but conquered and died.
It is unpleasant to add that Gillpatrick, though
unable to meet the warrior tribe ^in a fair fight,
succeeded in cutting off a number of stragglers in
spite of Donough's unremitting and ubiquitous vigi-
lance. Another Gillpatrick showed more patriotic
zeal and courage — even he who sent the bold message
by a monk to King Henry VIII. — '* Stand, my Lord
King. My Lord Gillpatrick sent me to you and
ordered me to say that if you will not punish Red
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 45
Peter he will make war against you." " Red Peter "
was the Earl of Ormonde, the Deputy, who was
molesting this Gillpatrick. Through these mountains,
Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, marched in 1600 after
passing through Fearcall, which submitted to him.
The Four Masters state that he also despatched three
plundering parties into the lands of Ely O'Carroll,
which are commanded by the Slieve Bloom. The
O'Neill repeated his ravages the following year, when
he and his allies, as the same authorities relate, " were
expeditiously conveyed across the Shannon at Shannon
Harbour ; from thence they proceeded to Delvin Mac
Coghlan to Fearcall, to the borders of Slieve Bloom
and into Ikerrin." This time the O'Neill and his
army were making their way to Kinsale to help the
Spaniards under Don Juan del Aquila against the
English forces, commanded by Mountjoy and Carew.
That expedition ended in disaster. For the Irish
under O'Donnell and Tyrone were routed, and the
Spaniards, who had marched out to meet the English
troops thinking them to be their allies, were compelled
to surrender, and O'Neill marched northwards to
surrender to Mountjoy in the beautiful church of
Mellifont Abbey in 1603 — two days after the death of
the Queen. The O'Neill's Well on the road to Mount-
rath has possibly older associations, as it did not lie
on the line of O'Neill's march, and both it and
O'Neill's town may be a souvenir of the Southern
O'Neills who had settled centuries before in these parts.
On these hills there are several cairns, one of which
stands on Ard-na-h-Eireann, another on a hill near
Clonaslee, and the third is the Hardy Man of Bohera-
phuca. And there is said to be another pyramid called
46 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the Capall ban, or white horse, said to be associated
with the celebrations of La Belltaine, the first of May,
when fires were Hghted in every territory of the king-
dom in honour of the pagan god. It is possible that
these pillar stones and piles had the same origin as
the Maypole. But be that as it may these piles and
circles are memorials of the religious ideas of a mind
that was haunted by stone. There are also some
specimens of the Irish mote, which is not a deep
trench but a high rath, one at Castle Bernard and
another at Drumcullen and others elsewhere, which
were probably the sites of the dwelling-places of the
Irish chiefs and nobles or members of the " flaith "
class, while a chain of forts are found on the Ossory
side of the Slieve Bloom, and another chain com-
mands the many tochars or causeways through the bog.
On the picturesque road to Mountrath hills roll
away to the right and left, leaving between them
beautiful glens and river valleys planted thick with fir
crowned by grassy slopes and here and there by dark
hills of peat. On the right of the road from Kinnetty
Knocknaman rises with its fir trees standing like a
frill on its nearer slope, gapped here and there by the
storm of four years ago, and with its ancient ring on
its rounded brow. The bare hill of Forelacka then
looms past, followed by the long, gently rising mountain
of Glendissaun, with its great druim or ridge of un-
reclaimable bogland. As we glance back we catch
exquisite glimpses of the Shannon and the hills beyond,
and the plain shimmering in the light of sun and
sunlit clouds. On the right are the Boro' hill, Glinsk,
and Letter, all grass-covered slopes reclaimed within
the past fifty years, and on which an occasional deer
KING'S COUNTY AND S LI EVE BLOOM 47
may be sighted. The road gradually winds up over the
hills, which seem so close in places that a stone could
almost be thrown from one summit to another. Deep
below lies a valley, through which a winding stream
purls its gentle way over a sandy bed. Here the
heron may be seen poised not ungracefully on one leg
fishing, and at the sound of approaching man the
imperturbable bird calmly spreads its broad wings,
and in a few seconds has soared out of range. As
the writer passed through these wind-swept solitudes,
the afternoon sun lit up the hills in front, while the
hills behind looked veritable masses of shadow, save
where the sun, dazzling one's view, lit up the lone
summit of Forelacka with a circle of bewildering
brightness. The man who thinks he knows Irish
scenery has something still in store for him if he has
not yet seen the Irish sun gleaming on these great
mountains of green and brown, amid the tears of
Eire weeping, as one who would never weary of
lamenting the departed glories of her ancient woods
and hills, and sorrowing, as one who would not be
comforted, because the present age with its sordid
prose has brushed aside as a myth the weird and
interesting people who worshipped Belus and Ana,
the host of heaven and the powers of nature, in the
mists and sunshine of their sympathetic glens and
hills. Standing on the summit of Knocknaman we
are within a magic circle of mountains, which recall
the Welsh hills of Penmahnmawr, whose varying
shades of brown and green and black on their scarred
summits, steep sides or gentle slopes form a bewilder-
ing and dreamy vision as they rise above us or recede
from us into the distance.
48 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
In the vastness and solitude of these hills " airy
nothings," mist-like forms " white presences " might
easily assume a " local habitation " ; and in the midst
of these deep-bosomed hills the soul of man can
commune with its Maker in a prayerful silence broken
ever and anon by the sighs of the wind or the soft
cadences of the distant streams, or the call of the
passing bird. And nothing reminds of man save the
ring forts which are everywhere in points of vantage
on the hills or in the vales. One of the largest of
these is on the top of the Comber mountain ; it is
surrounded by a double ditch and fosse, and is some
162 yards in diameter. The average diameter of the
forts which the writer has paced himself is about 53
yards. Some interesting stones of conglomerate
formation are to be found in these mountains behind
Cadamstown. Beyond the marshy slopes of Seskin
we cross the Kilnaparson river, the boundary between
the counties, and there on the side of the hill, all one
great moor save the haggard of the herd and the field
where we stand, are five conglomerate stones, which
are simply masses of small pebble cemented and
solidified doubtless by the action of a glacier — laid
flat over deep holes where interments were evidently
made centuries back, for the locality is known as the
Giant's Grave. One of the stones resembles a coffin
in shape. Another large stone is to be seen in a
hollow in Ballykelly, Lacaroe, some 200 yards from
the road, and has the quaint marks of the hoof of a
great beast, and a huge hand, thumb and fingers,
which may be a trace of an ancient moraine, and
which created the impression among the people that
it was cast there by a giant's hand, which grasped it
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 49
so tightly as to leave its impression on its side.
Similar stones known as the Bracket Stone are found
on Borlacan, or the top (Baur) of the hill side (laca.)
Standing on Borlacan we have an excellent view of
the surrounding country, the steeples of the Churches
of Tullamore, and the smoke of the steamers on the
Shannon being distinctly visible. Thence we see an
ancient fort on Magherabane or the white plain, facing
another fort on Letter or the side of the hill. The
finest of these forts, however, are in the vicinity of
Leap Castle, one of the O'Carroll Castles, of which
more will be said anon. There is a ruined castle at
Cadamstown which belonged to the Malone family.
Two of the most striking glens on the road to
Mountrath and well known to sportsmen are the Black
Stairs, where Glenregan joins Gorteen, and where the
mountain stream tumbles down zig-zag as down a
stairs from the dark and gloomy recesses of the hills ;
and the Black Curragh, where Gorteen joins Letter.
There is much slate and coal in the heart of these
ancient hills, as there is excellent limestone on the
road between Cadamstown and Clonaslee, which is
bordered by a glen almost as beautiful as the Dargle ;
but there is no capital, no railway, and no enterprise,
and therefore it were idle to speculate on possibilities
which may never be realized ; and yet a true patriot
cannot but dream of Ireland becoming another Wales,
and giving out of her deep-bosomed hills the mineral
wealth which untold aeons have generated and
innumerable centuries have stored within ; and attract-
ing to her romantic mountains and fairy glens lovers
of nature and disciples of sport from every clime.
There are other eminences that rise here and there
D
50 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
above the wide sweep of level moor bogland and
pastures. The Hill of Cloghan, a little distance from
Shannon Harbour, relieves the monotony of the flat
plain between the Brosna river and the Slieve Bloom,
while Croghan Hill, with its quaint top knot, a few
miles to the north of Philipstown, forms a conspicuous
landmark for miles. Near it is the famous Tochar
Cruachan of Bri Eile, which is now known as Tyrrell's
Pass, and was the scene of many a victory and defeat
of the O'Connor of Offaly.
The county abounds in ruins of ancient churches
and monasteries. Those at Clonmacnoise, Durrow,
Killeigh, and Seirkieran, are the most remarkable.
But there are also ecclesiastical ruins of high antiquity
at Killyon (Killiadhuin) a religious establishment on
the road half-way between Kinnetty and Birr, founded
by S. Kieran for his mother Liadana ; Drumcullen,
Kilcolman and Lynally. The latter place is near
Tullamore, and preserves the word /ann, church or
sacred land, which occurs so frequently in Welsh
names. It means the Church of Elo, so called from
Colman, a nephew of S. Columba, who settled here in
the wood of Ela (Fidh-Elo) saying : '' My resurrection
shall be there, and I shall be called from that place,"
i.e. Colman-Elo. With regard to Dervorgilla's Church
at Clonmacnoise, with its classic pillars and its deli-
cately carved arches, completed in 1180, the late Miss
Margaret Stokes writes that " no work of purely
Celtic art, whether in the illumination of her sacred
writings, or in gold, or in bronze, or in stone, was
wrought by Irish hands after that century." There is
a noble grace about this church which was built by an
Irish queen whose story so closely resembles that of
KING'S COUNTY AND SLIEVE BLOOM 51
Arthur's Guinevere, both in its pathos and its peni-
tence, and in the ruin it brought upon her native land.
The chancel of Rahan Church near Clara, the most
enterprising locality in the South of Ireland, is of
rugged masonry, and it possesses in its rose window
an architectural feature, of which Dr. Petrie said, *' it
is not only the most curious of its kind in the British
Isles, but also the most ancient." These churches —
all that is left of them — are a testimony to the fact
that Celtic art and architecture were developing
gradually and gracefully on their own lines when they
were suddenly and cruelly arrested in their course.
The county is skirted on three sides for many miles
by the Shannon, Barrow and Boyne ; but its own
rivers, the Brosna, Silver River, and Camcor are small.
The lakes are not extensive but picturesque. Of these
Lough Pallas and Lough Anna are the largest. Lough
Coura, which was once a considerable lake, has been
drained within the last twenty years by Mr. Thomas
Drought, of Whigsboro'. That lake is chiefly remark-
able for its islets and island forts, on one of which are
the ruins of an ancient castle and circular tower of
great extent and strength called Le Porte Castle, near
which an Irish canoe, old weapons, and several curious
bronzes have been found. In the vicinity is Dowris,
celebrated for the find of bronzes made there in 1825.
And not far off is the plain of Moylena, where the
sanguinary battle, Cath Muighelena, was fought in
192 A.D. between Conn of the Hundred Battles and
Owen More of Munster, and another in 907 between
Cormac, King and Archbishop of Cashel, and Flann
Sionna, the Ard-ri, when the latter was defeated.
The county contains twelve baronies. Of these
52 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Ballyboy, Ballybrit, Clonlisk, Eglish and Garrycastle
form the Birr Parliamentary division ; while the
remaining seven, Geashill, Kilcoursey, Lower and
Upper Philipstown, Warrenstown and Coolestown
constitute the Tullamore division. Of these baronies
the O'Connors of Offaly possessed Warrenstown and
Coolestown with portion of Geashill and Philipstown.
They were also lords of the baronies of East and
West Offally in Kildare, and of Portnehinch and
Tinnehinch in Queen's County. The district of Ely
O'Carroll comprised Clonlisk and Ballybrit, with the
baronies of Ikerrin and Elyogarty of County Tipperary.
The O'Mulloys, princes of Fearcall, were rulers of
Ballyboy, Eglish and part of Ballycommon, the other
portion being held by the O'Dempseys, lords of Clan-
malire. The MacCoglans, the chiefs of Delvin,
divided with the O'Maddens of Siol Ammchada
(Silancia) Garrycastle, the largest of the baronies and
the most interesting, inasmuch as it can boast of the
historic fair of Banagher and the famous abbey and
churches of Clonmacnoise.
The hills and plains and vales of the county are
thinly populated. The soil is light and the pasture
moderate. There is little more than fragrant breezes
on bog and mountain for the people to enjoy. While,
generally speaking, they lack the arts as well as the
means of living. The industrious may exist upon
their small farms happily if frugally, while the idler
must pass forth to pastures new. The population,
w^hich was 144,225 in 1831, has since fallen to 60,187,
but mules and asses, for which the county has always
been famous, are on the increase, according to the
returns of the Agricultural Department.
CHAPTER IV.
The O'Connors and the Pale.
According to the early historians of Ireland a great
battle was fought on the Slieve Bloom hills between
the Fomorians and Nemedians a thousand years
before Christ, and at Geashill, Heremon and Heber
Fionn, sons of Melesius, fought for the supremacy,
and Heber fell, to leave his son, Conmaol, an avenger
of his father's cause. For the scene of Heber's defeat
witnessed the discomfiture of Heremon's army and the
death of Palpa, his son.
The conflict between the brothers arose, as the
ancient poets inform us, through a quarrel between
their wives. For " they reigned in peace until the
ambition of a woman's heart, the wife of Heber, urged
them on to war." She desired to possess three vales
which were said to be the most fruitful in the land,
but one of these Heremon possessed and would not
surrender. Whereupon Heber's wife, as the poet
describes her, " raged passionately, and swore she
would never sleep on Irish ground till she was mistress
of the three vales." Then followed the battle of
Geisioll, or Geashill, where Heber fell a sacrifice to
the ambition of his wife, and Heremon reigned as
king. As the poet says : —
Three of the fruitful valleys of the isle,
Druim Finginn, Druim Clasach and Druim Beathach,
Occasioned the fierce battle of Geisiol,
Where vailant Heber fell.
54 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
To descend from these lofty clouds of fancy to the
lowly plains of fact, it is fairly certain that there was a
personage called Cathaoir More (Cahirmore) monarch
of Ireland, about A.D. 120. He was descended from
the posterity of Heremon, and had thirty sons, accord-
ing to the Irish poet, who were *' most renowned in
arms, most comely personages, and heroes all." But
ten alone survived him. The eldest of these was
Ros-Failge or Ros-of-the-Rings. From this Ros are
descended the O'Connors of Offaly. History tells us
little of Ros, save that his father addressed him as " my
fierce Ros, my vehement Ros." These qualities of
fierceness and vehemence have been duly transmitted
and remarkably displayed by members of his sept.
" They have exerted themselves as a posterity
worthy of such ancestors," wrote Keating. " For
they have shown themselves a valiant and generous
tribe, free and hospitable, and true patriots when the
cause of their country required their arms. They
were so free of their blood in its defence that the
family in process of time, were reduced to a small
number, for the bravery of this illustrious house
exposed them to the greatest dangers and difficulties
and they would never fly or retreat, though oppressed
by superior strength, but rather chose to sell their
lives dearly upon the spot." That ancient document,
the " Will of Cahirmore," translated in the Book of
Rights, ' contains the information that Cahirmore
bequeathed to his son, Ros-of-the-Rings, Leinster,
ten swords, ten shields, ornamented with gold and
silver and ten golden goblets.
The family of this Ros Faly were called Hy Faily
or descendants of -Faly to distinguish them from
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 55
other families of O'Connor or O'Conchobar, and gave
the name of Offaly to the districts occupied by
their clan which contain extensive remains of previous
civilizations in the shape of cairns, cromlechs,
sepulchral mounds and fortified raths. In the four-
teenth century we find the O'Connors ruling from the
green hill of Cruachan, near Croghan and at Dangan,
their chief fortress, now Philipstown, which they
retained until the time of Mary and Philip. After the
conversion of the Irish territory into shire land by
Queen Mary — a deed performed with great cruelty —
the O'Diomosaigh or O'Dempsey, Lord of Clan-
malire, became the representative of the sept, holding
strong castles at Geashill, Ballybrittas and Portnehinch
until the Revolution of 1685. But almost from the
time of the English Invasion in 1169, the Norman
Welsh Fitzgeralds of Kildare, afterwards Dukes of
Leinster, encroached upon the lands of the tribe and
obtained the districts of the sept, that lay within
the English Pale. These lands, known as " English
Offaly " gave the title of Baron to the Fitzgeralds ;
while the Irish chieftains, the O'Connors Faily, were
kings of the '' Irish Offaly " in King's and Queen's
County. The O'Connor is celebrated by the bard
O'Heerin in the verses : —
Let us westward proceed to Offaley,^
To which brave heroes make submission,
Of their laws I make mention,
Of their convention I make remembrance.
The Lord of Offaley, a land of mirth,
Not unknown to the poets,
Is O'Conor, the mainstay of the fair plain,
Who rules at the green mound of Cruachan.
There is the record of a battle fought about 121 2 at
56 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Killeigh, the church in the field, near Tullamore,
between the EngHsh of Munster and Murtagh
O'Connor.
Quantities of bones are still turned up when new
foundations are laid in that neighbourhood. We read
in Henry Marleburrough's Chronicle that " the Lord
Theobald Verdon lost his men and horses going
towards Ophali " in 1285; that in the year 1290
''was the chase and discomfiture of Ophaly and
divers Englishmen were slaine; " that " Mac Coghlan
slew O'Molaghlin," and that " William Bourgh was
discomfited at Delvin (in the King's County) by
Mac Coghlan." The same authority also states that
in the year 1294, ''the Castle of Kildare was taken,
and by the English and Irish the whole countrie was
wasted"; that Calvagh (Calvach O'Connor) "burnt
all the rolles andtallyesof that countrie," and Richard
Bourgh, Earl of Ulster, " was delivered out of the
Castle of Leye (Leix) for his sons," i.e., as hostages.
And in 1305 he writes : "Jordan Comin slew Conther
(Connor) de Ophaly " ; and " Calvagh his brother was
slaine in the court of Piers de Bermingham at
Carricke and Balimor was burnt." Hanmeralso gives
us an occasional glimpse of this fighting clan. Writing
of Richard Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, afterwards
betrayed and murdered by his own countrymen, he
describes him " in the year 12 13, and the moneth of
April, in a battell nigh Kildare, upon the great heath
called the Curragh, fighting against the O'Connors."
This is taken from Friar Clynn's Annals. Hanmer
also relates, on the same authority, that Maurice
FitzMaurice was not long after 1272 "betrayed by his
own followers in Ophali, taken and imprisoned in the
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 57
court of Piers de Bermingham, at Carricke, and
Balimor was burnt."
Generally speaking, we do not hear much of the
O'Connors of Offaly before the fourteenth century.
Their great namesakes, the O'Connors of Connaught,
were so great that their prestige eclipsed the smaller
sept of Offaly. But we find them appearing on the
scene when troubles began to gather round the Anglo-
Norman settlers. The close of the thirteenth century
marked the zenith of the Norman power in Ireland,,
From that time it began to wane. Many causes con-
tributed to this decline. The dissensions among the
Normans themselves, which had led to the shameful
betrayal and murder of Richard Marshall, Earl of
Pembroke in 1234; the weak and worthless character
of Henry III. of England, of which the Celtic chief-
tains and Norman nobles alike took advantage, Hugh
de Lacy going so far as to invite the King of Norway
in 1224 to come to his assistance, as we learn from
a letter of Queen Joanna of Scotland ; and the want
of some central authority in the land capable of
managing its affairs and controlling its turbulent
spirits. In consequence of this state of anarchy
and disorder the Norman settlers did that which
seemed good in their own eyes. Many of them made
friends with the natives, adopted Irish customs and
Irish dress ; employed the Irish as domestic servants
and soldiers ; and sided with the native chieftains in
their quarrel with the Norman Government. They
became, as the saying is, " more Irish than the Irish
themselves." They grew their hair long, cultivated
moustachios, rode bareback, spoke the Irish language
and lived according to the Brehon law.
58 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
All this was most offensive to their English brethren,
and feelings of bitterness estranged the Anglo-Irish
from the English-born. The latter were nick-named
" English hobbies " and the others " Irish dogs." As
these conflicts and differences were a constant source
of weakness to the English community several laws
were passed making the use of the English language,
English law, saddle and bow, compulsory in the
English districts. The saddle was made compulsory
in order to prevent the English knights and cavalry
forgetting the orthodox use of the lance. For their
adoption of the Irish custom of riding made them
unfit to appear in a tournament where their play would
be as ridiculous as that of Shakespeare's ''puny
tilter that spurs his horse but on one side " and
"breaks his staff like a noble goose." For the Irish
either grasped their lances in the middle or hurled
them like javelins, which was regarded as an un-
knightly proceeding by those who were accustomed to
ride full tilt with lances at rest straight at their foes.
In 1295 a statute w^as passed condemning the use of
the native garb, the moustache, and the " culan " by
the English residents, and by the Statute of Kilkenny
(1367) Irish games were forbidden. The wording of
the Act was to the effect that " the commons of the
said land of Ireland, who are in the different marches
at war, do not henceforth use the plays which men call
hurlings, with great sticks upon the ground, from
which evils and maims have arisen, to the weakening
of the defence of the said land and other plays which
men call quoiting ; but that they do apply and
accustom themselves to use and draw bows and throw
lances and other gentlemanlike games'' The real
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 59
reason, however, was not consideration for the limbs
of the athletes, but anxiety to prevent the deteriora-
tion of the settler. These prohibitive enactments
reveal the weakness of the Norman garrison in
Ireland. They had failed to maintain their authority
over their own people, who in isolated places had
been compelled by motives of policy to throw in their
lot with the majority, and had donned the " saffron,"
married Irish girls, given out their children to nurse
and educate with the families of their retainers, dis-
missed the expensive English guards and filled their
castles with cheap Irish kerne and gallowglasses or
quartered them for pay, food and fodder (coyne and
livery) according to the Irish custom upon their tenants,
who were humbled by their insolence and ruined by
their demands.
Another weak spot in the armour of the Pale was
the- practice of absenteeism, which has been for many
centuries one of the drawbacks to our national pros-
perity. Many of the Norman heiresses in Ireland
had married English nobles, who preferred a life of
peace at home to a life of broils and battles on the
borders of the Pale, and accordingly left the estates
their wives brought them to take care of themselves,
and abandoned the tenants of these lands to the
tender mercies of the surrounding septs who harried
their homesteads and lifted their cattle with impunity.
A statute was accordingly passed (1295) in the reign
of that great law-maker, Edward I., and in the first
English Parliament to which the three estates — clergy,
barons, and commons — were only summoned to con-
strain the lord marchers who had left their tenants on
the frontiers exposed to the raids of the Irish septs
6o THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
to return to protect them, and to compel the
absentee landlords in England to assign a portion
of their Irish revenues to the upkeep of a permanent
armed force for the protection of the colonists.
In certain places the barons undoubtedly held their
own, and protected by their castles and supported by
their retainers kept the neighbouring tribes in fear
and trembling ; but their numbers and resources were
being constantly drained by the demands of the
English kings who never forgot the English settle-
ment in Ireland when meditating a campaign in
France, or Wales, or Scotland. For instance, a writ
was issued in 1254 with regard to the army of
Christians and Saracens who were hastening to the
invasion " of the king's dominions in Gascoine, and
who would thereby obtain an entry into England and
Ireland; for this reason he is desired to come
with all his friends to the king in Gascoigne, so that
they be at Waterford against Easter, ready to embark
with horses, arms and soldiers." And in 1295, when
Edward I. was simultaneously menaced by the King
of France, by Balliol's revolt in the north, and the
Welsh rebellion in the west, he demanded a number of
horsemen and 10,000 foot to be fully accoutred and
sent for service to England. So when Edward Bruce
landed at Carrickfergus in 1315 with 6,000 men and
the bravest knights of Scotland, including Randolph
of Moray, Menteith. and Lord Allan Steward, he had
little difficulty in defeating the remaining colonists of
Ulster, under the Red Earl (De Burgho) on the banks
of the Bann, the forces of the Deputy De Boutiller at
Ardscull, in Kildare, and the army of De Mortimer
at Kells. It is to be noted that Edward Bruce came
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 6i
on the invitation of certain native princes, the O'Neills
among them, who had befriended his brother, King
Robert, during his exile in the isles off the north of
Ireland and Scotland, and that these princes sent a
letter to Pope John XXII., in which they set forth
the Irish grievances at large, traced them all to Pope
Adrian's gift of Ireland to Henry II., and besought
the Pope to approve of their choice of Edward Bruce
as their champion. But the Pope preferred the
friendship of England to the devotion of Ireland and
replied with a sentence of excommunication against
all who should help the Bruce. And had the Bruce
restrained his soldiers from their merciless devastation
of the country and their wholesale destruction of towns,
castles, and even churches, from Carrickfergus to
Castle Connell he would have retained the allegiance
of his Irish friends and have won the crown of Ireland.
The accounts of his raid are sad reading. Spenser in his
Viezu of the State of Ireland, informs us that Bruce
destroyed Belfast, Greencastle, Kells, Belturbet, Castle-
town, Newtown, and many other towns, and that ** he
rooted out the noble families of the Audlies, Talbots,
Tuchets, Chamberlaines, Maundevils, and the Savages
out of Ardes." Friar Clyn and Campion give
equally pathetic descriptions of the havoc wrought in
Ireland, and the mischief done to the English Pale by
" Edward Bruise " who spoiled Cashel and ''where-
soever he lighted upon the Butler's lands, those hee
burned and destroyed unmercifully.^' The latter
historian describes the soldiers of Bruce as '' surfeited
with flesh and aquavitoe all the Lent long." They
" prolled and pilled insatiably without neede and
without regard of poore people, whose only provision
62 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
they devoured." " While," he says, " the people of
Ulster, now living in slavery under Le Bruise, starved
for hunger, when they had first experienced many
lamentable shifts, as in snatching the dead bodyes
out of their graves, in whose skulls they boyled the
same flesh and fed thereof." And to add to the un-
happiness of the people Sir Roger Mortimer, the
Lord Justice, went away " indebted to the citizens of
Divelin for his viands a thousand poundes, whereof he
payde not one smulkin," But the end came to the
hopes and life of the Bruce in 1318, when he was
defeated and slain with all his officers at Faughard,
near Dundalk, by Sir John Bermingham. Campion
gives the names of Bermingham's officers : " Tute,
Verdon, Tripton, Sutton, Cusacke, and Maupas," and
notes some interesting incidents in the battle. The
Primate of Armagh accompanied the soldiers in person
and blessed their enterprise, '' assoyling them all ere
ever they began to encounter." Verily the English
had learned a lesson from the conduct of the Scots the
night before their great victory of Bannockburn, which
the Scots themselves on this occasion seem to have
forgotten. And Maupas, who had pressed into the
throng to meet Bruce was " found in the search,
dead, covering the dead body of Bruise." Bermingham
thus dissolved the Scottish kingdom in Ireland, and
sending the head of Bruce to the king received the
earldom of Louth and the Barony of Ardee and
Athenry as his reward for this important service to
the State. In connection with this same invasion it
is to be noted that Edward Bruce's success was
largely due to the fact that the Anglo-Normans and
the native Celts had just before met each other in two
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 63
terrible battles at Athenry and Dysart O'Dea, and like
the Kilkenny Cats left nothing of each other behind
but the proverbial " tails," which were altogether
powerless to withstand the onset of Scotland's chivalry.
Richard de Bermingham had almost annihilated the
O'Connors of Connaught at the Battle of Athenry
(13 1 5) of which Campion gives an interesting account.
He tells us the already familiar story of the Hussy of
Galtrim, whose family for centuries had disputed with
the O'Carrolls the lordship of Birr. According to
Campion, Sir Richard Bermingham had a young
squire called John Hussy who was sent by his master
to scan the dead, of whom eleven thousand lay around
the walls of the city, in order to see if O' Kelly, his
mortal enemy, was among the slain. While Hussy
and his attendant were engaged in turning over the
bodies he was observed by O'Kelly, who, " well
acquainted with the valiantness and truth of Hussee,
sore longed to traine him from his Captaine." Accor-
dingly, the O'Kelly suddenly confronted Hussy, and
said, " Hussee thou seest I am at all points armed
and have my esquire, a manly man, beside me ; thou
art thin and thy page, a youngling, so that if I loved
thee not for thine owne sake, I might betray thee for
my master's. But come and serve me at my request
and I promise thee by S. Patricke's Staffe to make
thee a lord in Connaught, of more ground than thy
master hath in Ireland." This munificent offer had
no effect upon Hussy, and then his own man, " a stout
lubber," rebuked him for not listening to O'Kelly, and
sided against him. " Then," writes the historian,
"had Hussy three enemies; and first he turned to
his own knave, and him he slew. Next he raught to
64 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
O'Kellye's squire a great rappe under the pit of his
eare, which overthrew him. Thirdly, he bestirred
himself so nimbly that ere any helpe could be hoped
for, he had also slain O' Kelly, and perceiving breath
in the Squire, he drawed him up againe and forced
him upon a truncheon to beare his lord's head into
the high towne, which he presented to Bermingham,
and the circumstances declared, he dubbed Hussee
knight and then advanced to many preferments,
whose family became afterwards Barons of Galtrime."
This was an incident in one of the two suicidal
battles that laid Ireland at the feet of the new invader.
The other fights that weakened the Irish and Anglo-
Normans took place in the South of Leinster, where
the O'Carroll of Ely defeated the Norman settlers, and
in the North of Munster, where the O'Briens gave an
overwhelming defeat to Richard de Clare at Dysart
O'Dea.
But that Scottish raid spelt ruin to the English
tenants on the baronial estates, as well as to the Irish
tribesmen. And if the Irish Annals of Clonmacnoise
break forth into song over the death of Edward Bruce
who was slain, " to the great joy and comfort of the
whole kingdom in general, for there was not a better
deed that redounded more to the good of the kingdom
since the creation of the world, and since the banish-
ment of the Fine Fomores out of this land, done in
Ireland than the killing of Edward Bruce," what
must have been the feelings of the English yeoman
over whose ploughed fields, haggards, and farms, that
desolating stream of lava had poured for three and a-
half years, leaving him a ruined man by the roadside,
to return a pauper to the shores of England, or to
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 65
sink to the condition of the tribal Irish, and to live as
the kerne, plundering others as others had plundered
him. The latter was, indeed, the fate of many a gallant
yeoman and of many a noble knight After the Scottish
invasion the English settlers abandoned and betrayed
by their own countrymen on the other side of the
water sank into a disorganised, hopeless community ;
while the spirits of the Irish who had perhaps suffered
considerably less from the invasion and the famine
that ensued rose in a corresponding degree. The
dispossessed tribes recovered the lands devastated by
Bruce and deserted by the settlers. The septs of
Desmond rose to a man. No check was offered to
their advance by English Government, deputy, or
settler. Out of the mountain fastnesses of the
Slieve Bloom the O'Connors and O'Moores swooped
like birds of prey upon the plains of Leix and
Offaly. Friar Clyn gives an interesting account
of one of these raiders, Leysert O' Moore. He
writes : —
*' In the year I342 died Leysert O'Moore, a man
influential, rich and wealthy, and respected in his
tribe. By force he ejected almost all the English
from his lands and inheritance, for in one night he
burned eight English castles and destroyed the noble
castle of Dunamase, the property of Lord Roger de
Mortimer, and obtained for himself the lordship over
his country."
Had the English settlers but waited and presented
a firm front they would easily have held their own.
But while some were desirous of maintaining law and
order, others proved week-kneed and lukewarm. In
1323 the lords of the Parliament assembled in Dublin
E
66 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
undertook to arrest or cause to be arrested all felons
and robbers of their family or surname. In 1327 the
Viceroy was directed to take possession of the castles of
the absentees and maintain them out of the revenues of
the estates, while the Irish enemies and English
rebels were ravaging the royal lands. In 1329 his own
English tenantry in the County of Louth murdered
John de Bermingham, the conqueror of Edward Bruce,
with two hundred men of his family and household.
And when summoned to answer for the crime before
the king's court they treated the writ with contempt
and remained unpunished. The events of that year
(1329) are summed up in Cox's Hibernia Anglicana
who ascribes the disasters of the English colony to
their own dissensions. " When the Earl of Louth,"
he writes, '* and many other of the Berminghams,
Talbot of Malahide and an hundred and sixty
Englishmen were murdered by their own countrymen,
— the Savages, Gernons, etc., at Balibragan (Bal-
briggan) in Urgile (Uriel = Louth) ; and when the
Barrys and Roches in Munster did as much for James
Fitz-Robert Keatinge, the Lord Philip Hodnet and
Hugh Condon, with an hundred and forty of their
followers, what wonder is it if Macoghegan defeated
the Lord Thomas Butler and others near Molingar
to their loss of an hundred and forty of their
men? Or if Sir Simon Genevil lost seventy-six
of his soldiers in Carbery, in the County of Kil-
dare ; or if Brian O'Bryan ravaged over all the
country and burnt the towns of Athassel and Tip-
perary ? "
The comment the historian makes upon this state
of affairs is both acute and prophetic. " And yet,"
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 67
he says, " this common calamity could not unite
the English, although their own experience taught
them (and frequent instances have convinced the
succeeding ages since) that the English never
suffered any great loss or calamity in Ireland,
but by civil dissensions and disagreement among
themselves."
While the Irish septs of Connaught were seizing the
royal castles of Athlone, Roscommon and Randoun,
the O'Byrnes, O'Tooles, and MacMurroughs were
raiding the lands of the settlers and driving off the
cattle in Wicklow and Kildare ; the O'Connors and
O'Moores were harrying Offaly and Leix; the
MacGeoghegan's and O'Melaghlins were devastating
Meath, and the great sept of the O'Neills, the Clan
Aedha Buidhe (Clan-na-boy) or tribe of Hugh the
Red were sweeping over the eastern counties of
Ulster which had been just reduced to a desert by
Edward Bruce, and were establishing a principality of
their own in the north, an event occurred which
seemed to be the death-blow of the English settle-
ment. This was the assassination of William de
Burgh, the " Brown Earl," the successor of the Red
Earl, in 1333, by Richard de Manneville at Carrick-
fergus. By English law the vast estates of the dead
earl in Ulster and Connaught, which were the back-
bone of the English settlement, passed to his infant
daughter, who was brought by her mother to England,
where she afterwards became the wife of Lionel, Duke
of Clarence. But William and Edmund Burke,
junior members of the great house of De Burgh, sons
of Sir William, the Viceroy in 1308, felt the absurdity
of doing homage for their possessions to a young girl,
68 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
at a time when every feudal baron held his lands and
governed his vassals as much by force of arms as by
right in law ; and well aware of the inability of the
heiress of the Brown Earl to support or defend them,
as she on her part was duly bound to do, took the
bold step of repudiating her authority. This step,
however, was a breach of the feudal system, and the
English sovereign was bound to take cognizance of
it. Accordingly, the two Burkes found themselves
compelled to renounce their allegiance to the English
Crown. And feeling themselves more powerful when
united with the Irish septs, stripped themselves of
their Norman coats of mail and arrayed themselves in
the saffron robes of the Irish chieftain on the banks of
the Shannon, in full view of the garrison of Athlone.
They, thereupon, assumed the names of McWilliam
Uachtar (the '' Nether ") and McWilliam lochtar
(the " Further) ; and, dividing the country between
them, one took Galway, and became the ancestor of
the Clanrickarde house, and the other took Mayo,
and from him the Mayo family is descended.
They also adopted the Irish language, laws and
customs. Their example was followed hy many
other nobles. Bermingham, of Athenry, styled
himself McYorris ; Nangle became McCostelo ;
Fitzurse, McMahon ; D'Exester, Mcjordan ; the
Baron of Dunboyne, McPheris ; and the White
Knight, McGibbon.
But Edward III. cared for none of these things.
He was engaged at the time in putting forward an
absurd claim to the throne of France, and his only
desire was to obtain the wherewithal to make good
that claim. With this object in view he began a
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 69
systematic oppression of the much tried English
colony, which appears through all the chequered
annals of the history of English rule in the character
of the much-enduring Ulysses. In 1341 the king
issued a writ to the justiciary of Ireland to resume all
royal grants of lands until he was " made certain of
the merits of the grantees, the causes and conditions
of the grants." The purpose of the writ to force the
grantees to compound by payment of fines was clear
to all concerned. And this flagrant act of dishonesty
roused the whole colony who were already provoked
by the king's gratuitous exclusion of Irish-born sub-
jects from '* the sweets of office," so that, as Campion
observes, ''the realm was ever upon point to give
over and rebel." Other acts of injustice committed by
his own English-born officials. Sir Anthony Lucy and
Sir Ralph Ufford who had seized Desmond's estates,
and was justly unpopular for his general character and
conduct, brought matters to a head. The great Earls
of Desmond and Kildare refused to attend the Parlia-
ment in Dublin (1341) and convened a meeting in
Kildare, from which a memorial was despatched to
the king, setting forth the grievances of the English
settlement in Ireland, the state of destitution to
which they had been reduced by the raids of the Irish
enemy on the one side and on the other by the '' em-
bezzlement and extortions practised by English-born
officials, who defrauded the constables of the royal
oastles ; entrusted their custody to incompetent
warders, or to those who employed deputies, merely
to extort fees ; charged the Crown for goods and
valuables taken for its use, but for which they never
paid ; entered into their accounts salaries to governors
70 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
of castles which were either demolished, in the
hands of their enemy, or had never existed, and
exacted money from the king's subjects on various
pretences."^
The Earl of Desmond, who had been allowed to
escape from his imprisonment in Dublin, where he
had been arrested by order of the rapacious Ufford,
whose lady is described as " a miserable sott who led
him -to extortion and bribery ;" also put down on the
paper the pertinent question — '' How an officer of the
king that entred very poore might in one yeare grow
to more excessive wealth than men of great patrimony
in many yeares ? "
Edward was forced to give way to such a memorial
especially when supported by an appeal to Magna
Charta and a resolute nobility who had been pro-
voked beyond endurance by Ufford's insolence and
tyranny. For in 1 346 we find him conferring knight-
hood on the Earl ofKildare, another victim of Ufford's
jealousy and greed, for his services at the siege of
Calais, and making the Earl of Desmond, some of
whose estates Ufford had seized. Lord Justice. It is
surprising that Edward, with all his cruelty, was able
to obtain a splendid Irish contingent for his foreign
wars which eventually brought greater loss than lustre
to England. It seemed, moreover, a sort of poetic
justice to find the victims of Ufford's impositions thus
honoured shortly after the death of their tormentor
had been publicly solemnized with bonfires and other
expressions of rejoicing in the land.
But Edward's hold on Ireland was growing weaker
^Ridley, Short History , p. 225.
THE O'CONNORS AND THE PALE 71
yearly. The Irish had grown excessively turbulent
since the invasion of Bruce had shown them the
weakness of the Anglo-Norman power. During 1330
there had been a great rising in Leinster, and " so
outragious were the Leinster Irish that in one church
they burned eighty innocent soules, asking no more
but the life of their priest then at Masse, whom they,
notwithstanding, sticked with their javelins, spurned
the Blessed Sacrament, and wasted all with fire." ^
His justiciary was compelled to bribe some of the
Irish septs, the O'Tooles and others to defend the
frontiers of the Pale, and to offer reward for the cap-
ture and assassination of the more refractory chieftains.
The Irish insurgents, however, had not matters all
their own way in every part of the country, for we
read of men like Sir Robert Savage in Ulster fortifying
his manor house, and his son. Sir Henry, who led his
men against the Irish and defeated them. This Sir
Henry seems to have had a touch of humour, for,
having prepared a supper of wine, aqua vitae, and
venison, beef and fowl for his men on their return, he
was advised by his officers to poison the food, lest the
enemy should defeat them and secure the supper.
" Tush," he answered, "ye are too full of envy. If
it please God to set other good fellows in our stead,
what hurt shall it be for us to leave them some
meate for their suppers ; let them hardly win it and
wear it." The gallant knight returned with his men
to enjoy his own supper.
Nor is it to be inferred from the charges that were
made against the English Lords Justices that they
^Campion, History of Ireland, p. 129.
72 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
were all bad and dishonest. For Sir Thomas Rokeby,
who held office in 1353 was the impersonation of
rugged honesty and sterling worth. When rebuked
for allowing himself to be served with wooden cups, he
answered : " These homely cuppes and dishes pay
truly for what they containe. I had rather drinke out
of wood and pay gold and silver than drinke out of gold
and make wooden payment." This was of course an
allusion to the almost proverbial dishonesty of the
Lord Deputies.
CHAPTER V.
The Rise of The O'Connors and Richard II.'s
Expedition.
In the foregoing chapter an account was given of the
condition of the English Colony called the Pale,
which may help the readers of this little work to form
a general idea of the state of Ireland in the fourteenth
century, when the O'Connors Faly rose into pro-
minence. Of the great possessions in the hands of
the English settlers and territorial barons at the
beginning of that century but little remained at the
end. Some of the causes, internal and external, that
brought about this condition of things have already
been set forth. But one has not yet received the
attention it deserves. The tribes are beginning
to act more unitedly, and to trust one another,
and though still far from that Home Reunion,
which is as vital to the existence of states as
of churches, were taught by the ''degenerate"
English, who had cast in their lot among them, that
they should, at least for the time being, bury the
hatchet between themselves until they had swept the
Colony into the sea.
A tremendous effort, or rather series of efforts, was
accordingly made at various points of the Colony's
possessions, and the English subjects and officials,
unable to resist the overwhelming tide, were driven
back upon their lines. Ulster was regained ;
Connaught was in revolt; parts of Leinster and
74 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Meath alone remained faithful to England, and were
compelled to purchase peace at a great price. It was
at this time that Richard II. made his great expedi-
tion to Ireland, which commenced auspiciously for the
Colony, but ended most disastrously (1394).
We shall now see what the Irish septs have been
doing in the meanwhile. That they lacked neither
wit nor courage, the following record shows. T/ie
Four Masters relate that one Donogh O'Gillpatrick
was killed by the English in 1249. "This Donogh,"
they write, " was one of the three Irishmen who com-
mitted the greatest number of depredations on the
English; and these three were Conor O'Melaghlin,
Conor MacCoghlan of the Castles, and the before-
mentioned Donogh, who was in the habit of re-
connoitring the market towns (of the English) by
visiting them in the different characters of a beggar,
a carpenter, a turner, an artist, or a pedlar, as recorded
in the following verse : —
He is now a carpenter, or a turner,
Now a man of books or learned poet,
In good wines and hides, a dealer sometimes ;
Everything by turns as suits his purpose.
These O'Melaghlins and MacCoghlans had wrested
half the County of Meath from the settlers at the end
of the century, but were just as often engaged in
fighting each other as in raiding the English lands.
For the same authority tells us that in 1290, forty-one
years after the death of this celebrated Irish comedian,
Donogh O'Gillpatrick, whose histrionic performances
proved a little more expensive to the English than
those of his countryman, the late John Lawrence
Toole, prince of good fellows, 'f Carbry O'Melaghlin,
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD II. 75
King of Meath, the most valiant young warrior in
Ireland in his time, was slain by MacCoglan."
The year 1305 was, according to all accounts, a
disastrous one for the clan of the O'Connors. We
have already mentioned the fact that their neighbours,
the O'Dempseys, afterwards became their representa-
tives. The sept of the O'Dempseys, or O'Diomsaigh,
dominated the district known as Clanmalire, which
embraced portions of the baronies of Geashill, Philips-
town, and Ballycowan in the King's County, and
portions of the neighbouring counties of Kildare and
Queen's County. Of this tribe the poet O'Heerin
wrote —
Clanmaliere is above all tribes,
Noble is the source of their pedigree,
The smooth plains of the land they have defended,
The country is the inheritance of the O'Dempsey.
The present town of Tullamore is in the district of
this ancient tribe, which fought with conspicuous
success against the forces of Strongbow in 1173.
Morice Regan, the faithful scribe and follower of
Dermot McMurrough, relates in his Norman-French
poem, in which he gave an interesting, if somewhat
embellished, narrative of the English invasion, that
the O'Dempseys made an attack upon the English, in
which Robert de Quincy, the Standard Bearer of
Leinster, and son-in-law of Strongbow, was slain.
The principal fortress of this tribe was at Geashill,
near where Lord Digby's handsome residence now
stands. And as far back as 1305 we hear of the sept
of O'Dempsey defeating the sept of the O'Connors,
with great slaughter, near this castle. But the
O'Connors returned to the charge the following year
76 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
and destroyed the Castle of Geashill, and swept on to
Lea, in which parish Portarlington is now, and
where the remains of a massive round tower and other
fortifications on the banks of the Barrow, and several
Irish raths in the vicinfty, testify to the military
prestige of the place, and, perhaps, to the operations
of the O'Connor sept in 1305.
The ancient castle of Carbury in County Kildare is
also connected with the fortunes and misfortunes of
this fighting clan. Those bleak skeletons of wall and
battlement, through which the winds murmur in
weird cadences, standing in lonely grandeur on an
isolated hill, form a conspicuous landmark, which
reminds us of the new age of the prowess and perfidy
of the Norman knights. To this massive keep Sir
Pierce Bermingham invited the O'Connor Faly, with
a number of his chiefs, to a banquet one ill-starred
day in the year of grace 1305. Thirty chieftains
attended the feast, and at night, when men had well
drunken and suspicions were allayed, armed men
arose and fell upon the Celts, and the night winds
moaned in sympathy with their shrieks as they were
done to death. Among those who fell that night
were the O'Connor, his brother Maelmordha, and his
heir, the Calvach O'Connor.
Sixteen years have passed, and the O'Connors have
somewhat recovered their strength ; but they have not
forgotten the Berminghams, their Norman neighbours,
and burning to wipe out that deed of shame and
barbarity, muster their forces and hurry to attack
the Berminghams who were in great force at Monas-
teroris in 1321. This place, on the borders of the
King's County, formerly Castropetre, was afterwards
THE OXONNORS AND RICHARD 11. 77
known as Monasteroris, from the monastery founded
here for Conventual Franciscans in 1325 by Sir John
de Berminghan, Earl of Louth, who rejoiced in the
Irish name of Mac Feoris. But Monasteroris was a
place of bad omen for the O'Connors on this occasion,
as they were defeated by Andrew Bermingham and
the English of Meath. A generation passes away and
in 1 348, as these unhappy memories were fading from
theminds of the O'Connors, a representativeof their foe-
man's house was expelled from Connaught by Edmond
Burke, and forced to throw himself upon the mercy of
the O'Connor Faly. He found what seems never to
have been refused to friend or foe — refuge and hospi-
tality. The politics of the Berminghams and of many
of the Norman barons had, however, changed in the
meantime. Several causes led to this. In 1329, Jean
de Bermingham, who had defeated Edward Bruce, was
murdered with all his kindred, some two hundred
souls, by the English settlers in Louth. Then in
1 331, Sir William Bermingham and his son, summoned
to a parliament at Kilkenny, did not consider it safe
to appear ; but shortly afterwards was arrested by Sir
Anthony Lacy, Lord Justice, while sick in bed at
Clonmel, and accused of aiding the Irish rebels. The
father was hanged in Dublin on the nth of July, to
the grief of many who esteemed him a noble and valiant
knight ; but his son Walter was released the following
year by John Darcy, a Lord Justice. The Earl of
Desmond was also arrested at Limerick, and sent over
to the king ; Walter Burgh and two of his brothers
were seized in Connaught and Henry Mandevil was
sent as a prisoner to Dublin, so that many of the most
loyal subjects of the Crown were turned into deadly
78 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
foes by repeated acts of oppression and injustice on
the part of the deputies and lords justices.
It would seem that the fighting clan had now begun
to give trouble to the English settlers in Meath by
harrying and plundering their lands and cattle. One
day, in the year 1385, Murrogh O'Connor, the Lord of
Offaly, had led his kerne and gallowglasses across the
borders of his territory and after spoiling the English,
were returning with much booty. But the men of
Meath w^ere not long in assembling, and under the
leadership of Nugent and others followed hard after
their wild and stalwart foemen, who were able, as
Froissart says, to overtake and pull a horseman off his
horse, but who were now retiring leisurely with their
plunder. In the level but boggy country around the hill
of Croghan they were overtaken and compelled to give
battle to their pursuers. Though superior in strength
and agility, the badly armed kerne were no match at
close quarters for the mailed and helmeted Normans,
and many of them fell. Still retreating, and fighting
as they retreated, they hoped to put the bog between
them and their foes. But there was naught but disaster
for the fighting clan that day. Behind them were
the English cavalry, around them an impassable bog,
and before them a narrow causeway or tochar, across
which the road to safety lay. And in their efforts to
cross, numbers of them were slain by the enemy or
smothered in the bog. This was the battle of Tochar
Cruachan Bri Eile, in which many of the English
nobility, Nugent, Chambers and others, and their com-
mon soldiers entered *' the vasty hall of Death " in
company with the slain warriors of the Kinel Fiacha
and O'Connor Sept.
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD 11. 79
The year 1 394 is the beginning of a new era in the
story of Ireland under English rule. For in that year
Richard II. landed at Water ford, with 30,000 foot and
4,000 horse, and, proceeding by slow marches along
the coast, eventually reached Dublin Castle, where he
summoned the Irish chieftains to meet him. The
chiefs, awed by the overwhelming display of force,
and induced by the hope of favourable terms, attended
to the number of seventy-five. Among these were
the O'Neills of the North, the McMurroughs, and the
O'Connors. It is clear that Richard had seen the
necessity of reforming the English mode of governing
Ireland, and especially of removing the grievances
and injustices under which the Anglo-Irish groaned.
Their lot had not been improved by the Statute of
Kilkenny, although some of its sections were *' more
honoured in the breach than in the observance."
Constant licences and exemptions were granted by
the Crown to the Irish to the detriment of the settler.
It may be observed in this connexion that the English
Government has always been represented as treating
the Celtic population with the direst cruelty. It is
true that if the letter of the law were strictly observed
the native Irish would be severely handicapped.
But there were many modes of evasion of which the
Irish were not slow to avail themselves. For example,
the Irish where out of the King's peace were excluded
from the protection of the King's Court. But an ex-
ception was made in the case of the " Five Bloods,"
the royal races of O'Neill of Ulster, O'Melaghlin of
Meath, O'Connor of Connaught, O'Brien of Munster,
and McMurrough of Leinster, who were styled " men
of the King." This exception practically covered the
8o THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
whole island, as under it almost any Irishmen could
claim the protection of the court. For instance, in 1355
one Simon Neal brought an action of trespass against
William Nevvlagh for breaking his close at Clondalkin.
The defence was that Neal was not one of the ''' Five
Bloods." But the plaintiff argued that he was of the
blood of the O'Neills of Ulster. One might well ask
who could prove, or who could disprove, or who could
decide that point. We also find cases where English-
men charged with murder put forward in defence the
plea that the murdered man was "a mere Irishman,"
i.e., not one of the " Five Bloods," and where such a
plea was not allowed. And we may be sure that the
English officials of these days would not be capable
of resisting a douceur from an Irish " enemy," for pro-
fessional swindlers are loyal to no person or party,
and Mr. Gilbert, in his History of the Viceroys of
Ireland, gives us this description of those officials :
" Many of the judges and chief legal officers of the
Colony were illiterate and ignorant of law, obtained
their appointments by purchase, and leased them to
deputies, who promoted and encouraged litigation,
with the object of accumulating fees. Ecclesiastics,
lords, and gentlemen were not unfrequently cast into
gaol by officers of the Crown on unfounded charges,
without indictment or process, and detained in
durance till compelled by rigorous treatment to pur-
chase their liberation.'^ It was not, therefore, more
difficult for the Irish to evade the law then than now.
In fact, they enjoyed a happy immunity and indepen-
dence of a sort. For, though legally without the pale
of the law, they were not disregarded politically ; and,
according to the humour or purpose of the King and
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD II. 8t
his Council, were bribed and petted, or whipped and
scolded, much in the same way as naughty children
are treated by nervous parents.
Richard II., however, came over with the very best
intentions of training and restraining his turbulent
sons. His policy was to conciliate the Anglo-Irish,
and to compel the Irish enemies to acknowledge his
authority. But the ready submission of the hostile
chiefs both flattered and deceived him. He enter-
tained them with a refined magnificence, for Richard II,
loved art as much as grandeur, and left nothing un-
done to attract and impress. The Irish chiefs had,
indeed, been accustomed to the royal receptions of
the English monarchs, which Henry II. had inaugu-
rated on a grand scale, as Hanmer describes in his
chronicle : — '' Christmas drew on, which the King kept
in Dublin, where he feasted all the provincial princes,
and gave them rich and beautiful gifts. They repaired
thither out of all parts of the land, — and wonderful
it was to the simple people to behold the majesty of
so puissant a prince ; the pastime, the sport, and the
mirth and the continual music ; the masking, mumming
and strange shows ; the gold, the silver and the plate ;
the precious ornaments ; the dainty dishes furnished
with all sorts of fish and flesh, the wines, the spices,
the delicate and sumptuous banquets ; the orderly ser-
vice, the comely march and seemly array of all the
officers ; the gentlemen, the esquires, the knights, and
Ibrds in their rich attire ; the running at tilt in complete
harness, with barbed horses, where the staves shivered
and flew in splinters ; the plain, honest people admired
and no marvel." The same round of entertainments
again took place, which were again attended by the
F
82 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Irish princes and chieftains, and again they tendered
their homage, which the king graciously accepted.
But Sir John Davis shrewdly remarked that " the Irish
lords knowing this to be a sure policy to dissolve the
forces which they were not able to resist," followed
the same " trick and imposture " which their ancestors
had put upon Henry II. and John. He thus
describes this well-acted homage : — " The men of
Leinster, namely, Mac IMurrough, O'Byrne, O'Moore,
O'Murrough, O'Nolan and the chief the Kinshelages,
in an humble and solemn manner, did their homages
and made their oaths of fidelity to the Earl Marshall,
laying aside their girdles, their skeins, and their caps,
and falling down at his feet upon their knees, which,
when they performed, the Earl gave each of them
oscuhion pads (the kiss of peace)."
They then bound themselves and their swordsmen
to be loyal dependents, and the Wicklow chiefs, in
return for pensions — Arthur MacMurrough, chief of
the Kavanaghs, receiving eighty marks per annum —
agree to evacuate their lands, upon which the King
intended to plant a new colony. When all the in-
dentures had been signed, and all the submissions
had been tendered, the king departed, '• with much
honour, but small profit," to his own country, appoint-
ing Roger Mortimer, the heir apparent of England, as
his lieutenant. The old chroniclers relate some inter-
esting incidents connected with the expedition of
Richard. When in Dublin he offered to confer knight-
hood on the four principal chieftains, O'Neill, O'Connor,
O'Brien, and MacMurrough ; but these princes
declined the dignity, stating that every Irish prince was
knighted at seven years of age, after having broken a
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD 11. 83
number of slender lances against a fixed shield. But
when the honour was explained to the noblemen they
accepted it, and it was conferred upon them in the
Cathedral, doubtless of S. Patrick. The king then
put them in the charge of one Henry Castide, who, as
Froissart relates, had no little trouble in schooling the
four noblemen, and teaching them to live and dress,
eat and drink and behave like Englishmen. They laid
aside their great mantles, and donned silken robes ;
they used stirrups and saddles on horseback, and at
table they adopted English manners, but reluctantly.
Castide's experiences were varied by an adventure in
which he was taken prisoner by an Irish gentleman
'' Brian Costeret, a very handsome man," who leaped
on the back of his runaway horse and took him as
prisoner to his house " which was strong and in a town
(civitas or lis) surrounded with wood, palisade and
stagnant water."
But " Caesar's thrasonical brag — I came, saw, and
overcame," did not apply to this magnificently con-
ceived expedition. The Irish chieftains by well affected
humility, by bending and bowing had weakened the
storm and broken the army that had been gathered to
break them. But no sooner had the king and his
army withdrawn from the shores of the green isle and
his Deputy had proceeded to carry out the plantation
of Wicklow, than Art MacMurrough, who had been
• suspected and imprisoned and then released, and em-
bittered, attacked the forces of the Pale. Carlow was
captured and the royal troops were defeated atKells,and
Roger Mortimer, the Earl of March, and heir-apparent
of the English throne fell in the engagement
(1395).
84 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Emboldened by this success, in which the O'Connors
of Offaly, the O'Moores and O'Dempseys had taken
part, the O'Connor Faly returned to his own country
and made preparations to avenge the defeat he had
suffered at the pass of the bog. Receiving information
that a strong force of the EngHsh were marching to
plunder his country and the seat of his ancestors, he
took a wide detour, and by forced marches was able
to attack them in the rear, and clinging closely to their
flanks eventually made their forces converge towards
the very causeway that had been so fatal to his own
clan some years before. In the battle that ensued,
the invaders were defeated with the loss of many men
and horses, and the Tochar Cruachan (Croghan)
again devoured more people than the sword destroyed.
Three years afterwards (1398), the Calvach, or
eldest son of the O'Connor, succeeded in inflicting a
smart defeat on the Earl of Kildare, the hereditary
foe of his people, but with the fall of whose house in
the days of Silken Thomas (1535) the O'Connors
were involved. The Earl, the ancestor of the famous
Lord Deputy of Henry VIII., of whom we shall hear
more anon, was taken prisoner, and handed up to
Murrough O'Connor. In 1406 Murrough O'Connor,
" Lord of Off"aly," who seems to have been a skilful
general, defeated the English at Geashill, both parties
having marched " to the upper part of Geashill." ** It
was on this expedition," wrote the Four Masters,
"that the chief holy relic of Connaught, called
Buacach Phatraig, the mitre of S. Patrick, which was
kept at Elphin, was taken from the English." In the
same year Meiler Bermingham slew Cathal O'Connor.
In 141 1 the same historians inform us that "the
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD II. 85
Sheriff of Meath was taken prisoner by O'Conor Faily,
and he exacted a great sum for his Hberation." We
read frequently in the annals of our country of doings
in which sheriffs figure, sometimes gloriously, some-
times ingloriously. It seems to be part of the un-
written code of honour, part of the noblesse oblige of
the Celt, to resist a sheriff. It is not suggested for
one moment that the Irishman is not as anxious as
the native of any other country to meet his creditors
and to pay his debts, but the prospect of a brush
with the law, to which they know they must yield in
the end, has an exhilarating influence upon their
nerves, which only an Irishman can understand.
Much of the banter and bluster that accompany
sheriff's sales is not to be taken ate grand serieux.
Presence of mind and ready wit, or the saving grace
of humour, is often more effectual than artillery on
such occasions. It does not appear, however, that
this particular sheriff had instituted any legal pro-
ceedings against, or had any process to serve upon,
the said " O'Conor Faily," as Meath was his
jurisdiction. But, like many another good fellow,
Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest among them,
O'Connor could not resist the temptation of
bagging a sheriff — a temptation which had the
additional relish in his case from the fact that
the said sheriff was an English official, and one
who could, in all fairness, be made to disgorge
some of the exorbitant fees and fines he had
squeezed out of the downtrodden English of the Pale.
The capture of the sheriff seems to have given a sort
of fillip to the rising spirits of the O'Connor. For
three years afterwards (14 14), with the help of
86 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
MacGeosfhes^an, he succeeded in inflictin"" a severe
defeat on the English, as one may infer from the fact
that one great baron, he of Skrein, was killed,
and another, the Baron of Slane, was taken
prisoner. This conflict took place at Killucan, near
Mullingar.
But in 142 1 the end came to Murrough O'Connor,
who had taken the sheriff, and who, as the Four
Masters- h.3.ve it, "had defeated the English and Irish
who opposed them in many battles." The great
chief died " after having gained the victory over the
world and the devil," and was gathered to his fathers,
and they buried him in the Monastery of Killachaid, or
Killoughy, the church of the field, which had been
founded, by a predecessor of the O'Connor sept, for
friars. Its full name v/as Kill-achaidh-dromfada, or
church of the field of the long ridge. This is in the
barony of Ballyboy, while another church, Killeigh,
with the same derivation, is in the barony of Geashill,
founded by S. Sincheall (548), who is said to have
lived to the age of 130, and is invoked in the Litany
of St. Aengus, along with '• 1,500 monks, twelve
pilgrims, and twelve bishops, and S. Sinchellus the
younger, a presbyter, who rest in Killachaidh-dromfoda
in the region of Offaly." There are the ruins of a
fine Franciscan abbey at Killeigh, where it is probable
that Murtagh O'Connor, after his victory over
MacGilpatrickand the English of Leix, retired when he
found himself attacked by an incurable disease, and
" died in a month after he became a friar, and after a
well-spent life," as the Four Masters say, having ap-
pointed Dermot O'Connor as his successor. And as
we stand among the ruins of that pile we cannot but
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD IT. 87
feel that we are in the presence of valiant dead, who
might have been great.
Here of old fought Erin's warriors,
Here they laid their sacred dead,
Waiting till the trump shall wake them,
From the ridge that crowns their bed.
The spot is peaceful, though not neglected, and
offered a quiet resting-place to one who was weary of
'' broils and battles."
It may surprise many to learn that the badly-armed
Irish kerne were able to make such headway against
the mail-clad forces with which they contended. But
the heavily-armed English cavalry and war-horses
which fell like a thunderbolt upon the splendid chivalry
of France at Crecy and Poitiers were useless in the bogs
and woods and mountain fastnesses of Ireland, just as
the heavy Norman brigades of William II. failed to
operate with success in the mountain fastnesses and
ravines of Wales. In such a country heavy armour
was an impediment, and English horses, which were
heavier and slower than the Irish, an encumbrance.
Here no level plains gave the much-desired opportunity
for the cavalry charge ; and the dense woods and scrub
made the close formation of infantry impossible, and
obstructed the aim and volley- firing of the archers, and
thus put out of action the most effective arm of the
service in those days. The lightly-clad and more lightly-
armed Irish soldier, fighting in his own native bog, or
heath, or wood, and knowing every pass and turn of the
country, accustomed to act and scout independently,
and possessing the sagacity and courage of a Red
Indian, and generally mounted on a swift horse, was
often more than a match for his heavily-armed
88 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
opponent who had been trained to fight in serried
masses, and had no previous experience in guerilla war-
fare, which requires speed and cunning more than
strength and courage. But the English were slow to
profit by the lessons their frequent defeats might have
taught them. The knights trusted in their armour and
their lances, and would not alter their style of fighting
for an enemy they could have mown down if they had
met them in the plains of France or England, but who,
unfortunately for them, happened to be located in the
midst of a rough and rugged country, reeking with
inaccessible swamps and bristling with impenetrable
woods.
Hence the discomfiture and practical defeat of the
magnificent army corps which Richard II. brought with
him in 1 399 ' o avenge the death of the Earl of March.
Having landed at Waterford and marched to Kilkenny,
the foolish monarch led his forces into the almost un-
approachable country of the MacMurroughs. There
the archers were useless in the woods, the cavalry were
impeded by the bogs, and the infantry were discouraged
by having to cut thedr way through the dense thickets.
In the meantime the MacMurrough, too wary to risk
an engagement, was constantly retreating and drawing
his foes deeper into the woods of Carlow. Then
supplies began to fail. And when hunger, the greatest
enemy the soldier has to face, began to enfeeble their
spirits and bodies, roving kerne and gallowglasses
appeared in unexpected quarters, and having wrought
havoc among the stragglers, speedily decamped. And
as the horsemen rode past, the kerne would dash out
from their ambush, and cut the reins with their pikes,
hamstring the horses, and stab the riders with their
THE O'CONNORS AND RICHARD II. 89
sharp skeans. There was nothing for it but retreat.
Pursued and harassed by the now triumphant enemy,
the disheartened chivalry of England at last won the
shore, and were gladdened by the sight of their trans-
port ships in the offing. So this gallantly-equipped
army, which might have made history on the fields of
Europe, had all but gone down before the wild wood-
men and hillsmen of Wexford, Carlow, and Kilkenny.
Richard, however, had the sense to alter his tactics,
and was engaged in despatching flying columns
through the country, the only practical mode of cam-
paign, when the fatal news arrived of the landing of
Bolingbroke at Ravenspur. And he hastened back to
England and to death, leaving the Irish septs to work
out their own salvation.
CHAPTER VI.
Ireland under the Lancastrian Kings.
During the reign of Henry IV. his gallant son, Lord
Thomas of Lancaster, was Lieutenant of Ireland, but
only stayed here some seven months, during which
time he was wounded in an encounter with the
O'Byrnes of the Dublin hills, a mile from Dublin. In
the reign of Henry V., whose whole attention was
given to France, Lord Furnival, the Lieutenant, went
round the Pale receiving submission from the Byrnes?
Tooles and Kavanaghs in the South, and passing on
to the Moores, O'Connors, and O'Farrels in the West,
and concluding with the O'Reillys, MacMahons,
O'Neills, and O'Hanlons in the North. A record of
his services was sent as a memorial to Henry V., then
in France, by the grateful lords and gentlemen of the
Pale, which Sir John Davis says he saw recorded in
the White Book of the Exchequer at Dublin. But he
was able to effect little permanent work owing to the
small pay and worse discipline of his troops.
From this date the O'Connors became formidable
foes of the English and such of their own countrymen
who ventured to oppose their designs. Their forays
became bolder and more extensive. Up to the very
walls of Dublin they came, and Cahir O'Connor
succeeded in improving upon the exploit of Murrough
O'Connor, who took captive the Sheriff of Meath, by
carrying off no less a personage than the Lord Deputy
of Ireland in 1439. The account in the Four Masters
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN KINGS 91
is that " the King of England's Viceroy arrived in
Ireland, and was taken prisoner by Cahir, the son of
O'Conor Faily, and after he had remained some time
in confinement, he was ransomed by the English in
Dublin, who delivered the son of Plunket in his stead
to Cahir." Sir Christopher Plunket was a former
Deputy (1432). But it is not certain who the notable
prisoner of Cahir O'Connor was. He can not have
been the Lord Wells who was appointed Lord
Lieutenant in 1438, for he never came over. But it
was probably Richard Talbot who v/as then in
Ireland. The distinguished prisoner was detained in
the castle at Killucan on the borders of the county.
The capture of the King's chief officer in Ireland
shows to what a low ebb the fortunes of the English
Colony which was now reduced to the county of
Dublin with parts of Meath, Louth, and Kildare, had
fallen. The towns of ths sea coast were completely
isolated, and owing to the disturbed nature of the
country it was impossible for the great lords to attend
the Parliament while the remaining colonists were
compelled to pay tribute and " black rent " to the
surrounding Irish chieftains. The fact was that the
English nobles who tried to govern England and
Ireland in the reign of the pious but weak-minded
Henry VI. were unable to cope with the difficulties of
the French campaign and the Irish rebels owing to
their own divisions which eventually culminated in
the great schism between the houses of York and
Lancaster. This civil war was hailed with delight by
the native Irish as well as by the English colonists ;
and the two houses had no keener adherents than
their Irish allies. The Butlers of Ormonde fought for
92 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the Red ; the Geraldines of Desmond and Kildare
contended for the White Rose. But the Irish chiefs
who fought for Richard of York must not be forgotten.
Their presence at Wakefield Green serves to illustrate
the weakness of the Celtic system. At the time when
the English colonists of the Pale were at their last
gasp, and a sudden and well-combined movement of
the Irish septs would have swept them into the sea,
the opportunity of liberating their country was allowed
to pass while the Irish chieftains carried on their petty
feuds with one another, or allowed their sympathies
to get the better of their reason.
The Irish statutes of the reigns of Henry VI. and
Edward IV. fully reveal the feebleness of the Execu-
tive and the persecution to which the colonists of the
Pale were subjected. For instance, in the 25th,
Henry VI., Cap. 24 (1447) we read that as there was
" no diversity in array between the English marchers
and the Irish enemies," and that the latter under
colour of being English marchers, or troops for the
defence of the frontiers, entered into the Pale, robbing
and murdering the common people by night, it was
ordered that an Englishman shall have '' no beard
above his mouth, that is to say, that he shall have no
hairs upon his upper lip." For the moustache was a
favourite appendage of the Irishman. Although some
such regulation was necessary in order that the Irish
highwayman masquerading as a loyal trooper might
be more easily detected, it was hard on the English
settlers to be ordered to remove these hirsute embel-
lishments, if they chose to wear them, under pain of
being seized, as Irish rebels and held to ransom as
Irish enemies. Were the Privy Council of 1908 to
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN KINGS 93
issue such an order it might create as much stir in the
coiintry as the Old Age Pensions Act.
From the same statute wc learn that the lieutenants
and justices of the land received divers Irish as liege-
men and retainers doubtless because they were more
easily hired and kept than English soldiers, and that
these people, instead of acting loyally, " do rob, burn,
and destroy the King's liegemen." For this the poor
colonists had little or no redress. They were afraid even
of defending themselves and their property against
the Irish — who are not to be blamed — " for fear,
as the statute says, " to be impeached," that means,
to be brought to trial before the judges. What greater
proof of the unjust conduct of the English officials of
those days could be desired ?
A statute of 1450 tells us how the marchers of the
different countries maintained their horsemen and
footmen, Irish as well as English. " They do coyne
them upon the poor husbalids (husbandmen) and
tenants of the land of Ireland and oppress and destroy
them." The expression " coyne and livery " is
frequently met in the Statute Book, and will be
referred to in another place. Suffice it to say here
that coyne and livery meant the food for themselves
and their horses which the soldiers billeted upon the
unfortunate farmer seized. It is certain that coyne has
nothing to do with the English coin, but means man's
meat, while livery means horse-meat and stabling, the
accommodation that was delivered to a traveller.
This, however, was a case of " stand and deliver."
Spenser informs us that '' a servant's livery is so
called from his being required to deliver it up when
dismissed from his master's service." An expression
94 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
in vogue in his day " the livery is served up all right,"
meaning that the carousal was kept up all night may
throw light on some of the customs connected with
the exaction of " coyne and livery." For the gallant
officers in charge of the English frontiers, and
entrusted with the defence of the English Pale, were
not content with merely billeting their Irish kerne
and gallowglasses as well as their own troops upon the
English " husbands " and tenants. The same statute,
28 Henry VI., describes other doings which were even
more intolerable. For '* the captains of the said
marchours " brought all their people, their wives and
their pages, and " the King's Irish enemies, both
men and women, and English rebels, with their horse-
men and footmen," down upon their poor '' husbands "
in time of war and peace. And the *' husband" was
compelled often to entertain one hundred of these
gentry, horse and foot, at night suppers called
"cuddies." Hard times were those for the English
farmer in Ireland. Hard, indeed, was it at harvest
time when the hay and the corn were being carted
home to be ricked and stacked in the haggard to find
a troop of the king's horse or of an Irish sept in
possession of the farmyard. But harder still was it to
have the doors of his house — the Englishman's castle
— burst open in the witching hours of night by order
of the king's officer in charge of the district, to see
his victuals dragged forth from the larder and his wife
and children insulted and molested by a number of
strange men, rebels against the King and native
tribesmen, whose conduct, even if it did not exceed
wild hilarity, would be sufficient to cause any self-
respecting man to feel indignation.
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN KINGS gS
Spenser, who must often have witnessed such scenes
in which the soldiers dealt roughly with the poor men
who were compelled to supply them with lodging and
food, describes them with indignation, saying of the
soldiers, ''for they will not onely not content them-
selves with such victuals as their hostes, nor yet as
the place perhaps affords, but they will have other
meate provided for them, and aqua vitae sent for, yea
and money besides laid at their trenchers, which if
they want, then about the house they walk with the
wretched poore man and his silly wife, who are glad
to purchase their peace with anything."
But hardest of all was it to know that the men to
whose keeping their lands and lives had been
entrusted by the king and his deputy were in league
with their enemies against them, and that " what
tenant or husband will not be at their truce they do
rob, spoil and kill."
The English Government in 1450, the year of
Jack Cade's insurrection, actually went so far as to
allow every loyal subject of the king to take or kill
without impeachment any notorious thief caught in
the act of '' robbing and spoiling or breaking houses
by night or by day." And in 1466, inconsequence of
the many highway robberies and murders that had
been committed in the county of Meath upon ^' the
faithful liege-people of the king" permission was
granted to any person finding any thieves robbing or
going or coming to rob or steal, to take and kill them
and cut off their heads, which were to be brought to
the " portreffe of the town of Trim," and to be put
upon a spear upon the castle, and a reward was to be
given to the slayer of the thief. By this statute the
96 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
English Government did not exhibit its cruelty but
confessed its inability to protect the lives and property
of the colonists, who were completely at the mercy of
the roving bands of Irish kerne, and who had little
chance of putting down the " Sheppards " and
" Turpins" of those days unaided, much less of cop-
ing with the native chieftains on their native heath.
It was in the same grim humour that a Chief Secretary
of Ireland stated in the House that the victims of the
recent cattle-scattering raids ought to protect their
own property. Five years before the statute con-
cerning the highwaymen of Meath, the O'Connor had
marched with a thousand horsemen *' all helmeted,
fearless and undismayed," into the said county of
Meath, burning and laying waste until at last " he
received great presents from the English for granting
them peace, as was always customary with those who
held his place." A very small harvest of heads would
the Portreffe of Trim have to show after such a
thorough reaping by the Irish harvesters.
But such campaigns as these revealed at once the
strength and the weakness of the Irish septs. The
tribesmen of the various clans were devoted to their
own tribe and chief. But they had not yet learned
that the tribe was but a portion of a greater unit —
the nation. Their patriotism was limited to the tribe
and their loyalty to its chief. They carried on war
more implacably with their own neighbours, their
hereditary foes, than with the stranger, Dane, Norman,
Saxon, or whatever he might be. There was no central
authority which could coerce or combine the Irish
chieftains, who ruled their own district by the sword.
The country was divided among a number of petty
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN KINGS 97
kings and princes, whose dimensions rarely extended
beyond the size of a modern barony, and who would
have been invincible if united, but because they were
simply a congeries of disorganized units were easily
taken and dealt with in detail, but on the whole were
difficult to conquer.
Nor were the English slow to take advantage of
the quarrelsome and excitable nature of the Irish, of
whom Sydney wrote — " They fight for their dinner,
and many of them lose their heads before they be
served with their supper." They often fostered dis-
cords and sowed dissension among the Irish tribes.
The State Papers of Henry VIII. make this clear.
The Archbishop of Dublin was sent to Waterford in
1520 to make peace between the Earl of Desmond
and Sir Piers Butler, but while publicly exhorted to
do this was privately directed to enfeeble and diminish
the strength of the Irish enemy '' as well as by getting
captains from them as by putting division among
them, so that they join not together." The story is
also told of a Cromwellian officer who desired to reduce
the Irish population in his district. Accordingly he
gave a banquet and dispensed wine freely, and when
the men had well drunk they found daggers placed
near them with which they concluded their arguments.
The story, no doubt, is apocryphal, but it may illustrate
the point.
The English estimate of the Irish character and
affection was not high. The Government in 1537
advised the keeping of a supply of ready money in Dub-
lin as a remedy against rebellion, " because the nature
of Irishmen is such that for money one shall have the
war against the father and the father against the
G
98 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
child." 1 Some colour is given to this statement by the
Irish annals, which read in some places like a series
of Newgate Calendars rather than the history of a
civilized nation, and in others like the high-flown and
fulsome panegyrics of the orators of declining Greece.
There is little doubt that the annalists gloried in the
barbaric and bloody deeds of their heroes, rather than
in their services to the social and religious well-being
of their tribe. Professor A. C. Richey gives an
analysis of the Annals of the Four Masters, who were
principally concerned with the doings of the Ulster
and Connaught clans, from the year 1500 to 1534,
which illustrates this point. It runs : — " Battles,
plundering, etc., exclusive of those in which the
English Government was engaged, 116; Irish gentle-
men of family killed in battle, 102 ; murdered, 168 —
many of them with circumstances of great atrocity ;
and during this period, on the other hand, there is no
allusion to the enactment of any law, the founding of
any town, monastery or church, and all this is recorded
by the annalist without the slightest expression of
regret or astonishment and as if such were the
ordinary course of life in a Christian nation."
The Book 0/ Leinster, a collection of similar records
of the deeds of the Leinstermen, makes one wonder
how Dermot Mac Murrough, who was taught by its
compiler in his youth, could have been other than he
was — cruel, revengeful and evil. This " Book "
eulogizes the violent deeds of the Leinster men against
the Connaught men, and at the end of every violent
tragedy, adds with exultation — '' 'Twas the Leinster-
men killed them," while the Four Masters describe
1 A short History of the Irish People (Kane's Edition, p. 247.)
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN KINGS 99
Mortogh O'Loghlin of the Northern O'Neills, who
was King of Ireland and the ally of Dermot Mac
Murrough in the latter's war with O'Rourke and
Torlogh O'Connor of Connaught, as '* the Monarch
of all Ireland, the chief lamp of the valour, chivalry,
hospitality, and prowess of the West of the world ; a
man who had never been defeated in battle till that
time, and who had gained many battles." And yet
this " Chief Lamp of the West " had broken an oath
of peace sworn upon the staff of S. Patrick, the
Bachall ha, to certain chieftains, and when he had
got them into his power blinded one, who is said to
have been '' the pillar of the prowess and hospitality
of the Irish." And they eulogise Torlogh O'Connor,
who broke the most solemn oaths without the slightest
compunction, and in whose hands no man's life or
lands were safe, and who had put out the eyes of his
own son, Hugh, in 11 36 as "the flood of the glory
and splendour of Ireland, the Augustus of the West
of Europe, a man full of charity and mercy, hospitality
and chivalry."
There must have been, indeed, something rotten in
the state of Ireland when such lives were regarded as
standards of honour and rectitude, and such men were
regarded as the " Chief Lamps of the West " and
''the floods of the glory and splendour of Ireland."
It is little wonder that under such conditions of life
the native tribes were not improving, and although
they had obtained many advantages in their border
warfare with the downtrodden English colony, who
were reduced to the condition of the scapegoats of
the Home Government and the tributaries of the
enemy, were unable to come to any permanent or
loo THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
satisfactory settlement with the invaders. When the
chiefs of neighbouring clans could not arrange a
modus Vivendi with each other, they could hardly be
expected to come to any amicable arrangement with
the strangers, who only wished to live peaceably with all
men and to be allowed to trade and prosper in the land.
Here we touch the solution of the problem, the
lack of thrift and commercial spirit among the Irish.
They scorned the one and they despised the other.
It was foreign merchants, Norsemen, who came to the
country after the removal of Turgesius, who founded
Waterford, Limerick, and Dublin. And it was the
Bristol merchants who made Dublin the leading city
it was in the thirteenth and the fourteenth century.
A few words on the doings of our metropolis and
the general state of Ireland in the period under consi-
deration may not be an unsuitable conclusion to this
chapter. The citizens of Dublin showed remarkable
activity both by land and sea in the reign of Henry
IV. In 1400 we read in Marleburrough's Chronicle
that " the Constable of Dublin and divers others at
Stranford (Strangford) in Ulster, fought at sea with
the Scots, where many Englishmen were slaine and
drowned." The year before, the trained bands of
Dublin had invaded the O'Brien's country and '' slue
three-and-twenty of the Irish, and tooke fourscore
men, women and children." And in 1402, on the
fifth of the Ides of June, after the dedication of the
Church of the Fryers Preachers in Dublin, and per-
haps to signalise that occasion by a worthy feat, John
Drake, the Mayor of Dublin, issued forth with the
citizens and townsmen near to Bre, now known as
Bray and meaning hill, and punished some of the wild
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN ^ICINGS loi
Wicklow tribes who had on Black Moncla}^^: in tht
year of grace 1209, massacred the Dubhn citizens,
their wives and children, as they were picnicing in
"the wood of the Cualanni, now known as CuUenswood,
near Rathmines. John Drake and his valiant men
*' slue of the Irish four hundred, ninety-three, being
all men of warre."
In 1405 we read in Marleburrough's Chronicle of a
naval exploit of the Dublin sailors. This year which
witnessed the capture of Prince James of Scotland on
the high seas as he was on his way to France to learn
'* that tongue and eke courtesy," and who was
brought to England to learn to love an English
maiden, Lady Joan Beaufort, and to sing her praise
in " The King's Ouair," also beheld the Dublin ships
putting into St. Ninian^. where their crews " valiantly
behaved themselves, and afterwards they entred
Wales and there did much hurt to the Welch men
and brought away the Shrine of St, Cubius, and
placed it in the Church of the Holy Trinitie in Dublin."
In the same year 1405 there were serious risings in
Leix, the country of the Moores and the O'Dempsey,
w^ho had been encouraged by the temporary successes
of Art MacMurrough. But James, Earl of Ormonde,
called the Chaste, quelled these disturbances. First
of all, " in the red moore of Athye (the sun almost
lodged in the west and miraculously standing still in
his epicycle the space of three hours till the feat was
accomplished, and no pit in that bogge annoying
either horse or man on his part) he vanquished
O'More and his terrible army." And soon afterwards
' Probably Whitorn in Wigtownshire, where S. Ninian preached Ifoe
Gospel to the Picts in the fifth century.
102 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
he, dispersed the Vormidable forces of Art. But James
of Ormonde seems to have been a mild governor as
well as a heaven-blest warrior. The O'Dempsey took
advantage of his gentle rule and intruded into the
castle of Leix, the property of the Earl of Kildare,
from which he was expelled by the Deputy, who also
"tamed the O'Briens, Burkes, MacBanons, Ogaghn-
raghte, MacMahons, all the captains of Thomond in
three months." All this time the Lord Justice was
materially assisted by the clergy of Dublin, who
processed through the street twice every week with
prayers for his success against "those disordered
persons which now in every quarter, had degenerated
to their old trade of life." Very solemn must those
litanies have been. They remind us of the solemn
Miserere of Bishop Mamertus of Vienne in Gaul
(460) when the clergy walked in solemn procession
through the streets chanting their litanies for deliver-
ance from the plague. Verily the clergy of Dublin
were as strong in prayer as they were stout in arms.
But our best governor died the same year, and was
succeeded by Gerald, Earl of Kildare, 1405. Greatly
encouraged, however, by their recent successes, the
citizens of Dublin on Corpus Christi day, 1406, with
the help of the country people, " manfully vanquished
the Irish enemies and slue divers of them, and took
two Ensignes, bringing with them to Dublin the
heades of those whom they had slaine."
There seems to have been an unhappy mania for
collecting dead men's skulls in those days. Instead
of decently interring the remains of the ill-starred
warriors they simply cut off their heads and carried
them off triumphantly in almost the same way as a
IRELAND UNDER LANCASTRIAN KINGS 103
Red Indian would scalp a fallen enemy, dead or alive,
or a wolfhunter of those days would gather the heads
of the wolves of which he had rid the land, and for
which he claimed reward.
In the same year we read that the Prior of Conall
with but 20 Englishmen vanquished two hundred Irish
that were well armed, "slaying some of them and
chasing others," in the Curragh of Kildare,
But all this time the Irish were giving great trouble
to the settlers. Most pathetic is the application for
assistance that was sent from the inhabitants of Cork,
Youghal, and Kinsale, who were harassed by the
Irish outlaws, who had become stronger than the
Norman nobles of Munster owing to the dissensions
of the latter, and of whom Lord Roche, Lord Courcy
and Lord Barry alone remained. Nor was the Pale
free for a day from the incursions of the raiders, who
harried their borders, especially during the sessions
of Parliament, " when," we read, " the Irish burned
all that stood in their way." A strange instance of
poetic justice is mentioned in Marleburrough's
Chronicle. In 1408 he tells us that Hugh MacGilmore
was slain at Cragfergus (Carrickfergus) within the
Church of the Friars Minors, " which Church he had
before destroyed and broken down the glasse- windows
to have the iron barres through which his enemies
the savages entered upon him." P'or one would opine
that although the poet says : —
Stone walls do not a prison make.
Nor iron bars a cage,
that they would form a stouter protection than brittle
glass against an armed host — unless half-naked and
I04 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
fearful of cutting their hands and feet. But the result
was evidently regarded not as due to an error of judg-
ment but as the consequence of a sacrilege, very much
as the stout De Courcy of Ulster was thought to have
brought a curse upon himself for having altered the
Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity in Down into
" an Abbey of Black Monks from Chester, and dedi-
cated the same to the honour of S. Patrick."
The same eternal feuds continued in spite of all
the English could do, for the Celtic blood is irrepres-
sible, so that the colonists once more turned their faces
towards home, but were checked in 1438 by the
statutes against absentees.
In 1449, a firm hand was laid upon the neck of the
unmanageable Celt, and by kindness and firmness his
spirit was tamed. But the same ruler — Richard Duke
of York, in his letter to his brother the Earl of
Shrewsbury — complained of Magoghigan (MacGeog-
hegan) and his turbulence. " With him," he wrote,
"three or four Irish Captaines associate with a great
fellowship of English rebells. . . They have burnt down
a great towne of thine inheritance, Ramore, and other
villages thereabouts, and murdered and brent both
men, women, and children without mercy. The which
enemies be yet assembled in woods and forts wayting
to doe the hurt or grievance to the King's subject's
that they can thinke or imagine."
This is a fair picture of the difficulties with which
a Lord Lieutenant of those days had to cope ; and
when badly paid and worse supported by the King
and his Council we cannot be surprised if few reached
the high standard of our best English Viceroy —
Richard Duke of York.
CHAPTER VII.
Acts of Significance.
We have followed the O'Connor clan from comparative
obscurity to considerable importance. We shall see
how they gradually fell from the pinnacle of their
pride. Their fall is to be ascribed to their connexions,
hostile and friendly, with the Geraldines, and to their
own unhappy dissensions. Some time after the capture
of the King's Deputy the Fitzgeralds of Kildare and
Desmond began to cast longing glances upon the rich
pastures of Offaly, and to make themselves strong,
with a view not only to repel their " rash intruding "
neighbour, but also to seize his lands. The Earl of
Desmond followed hard on the heels of the O'Connor
as he was returning from one of the forays in Leix
(1440). Twelve years afterwards (1452) James, Earl
of Ormond, Lord Justice of Ireland, was compelled
to put down the Midland septs with a firm hand. He
overran Leix, burnt Airem, the property of O'Demp-
sey, and marched into Offaly, where the O'Connor
submitted to him. Seven years pass and Con
O'Connor was defeated by Thomas, Earl of Kildare,
and taken prisoner. The next year (1460) the rest-
less Con defeated the English, when Hussey or Hose
Baron of Galtrim was killed. These Husseys claimed
Birr under the grant of the town and the neighbouring
lands of Ely O' Carroll made by King John to
Theobald Fitzwalter, and by him transferred in part,
i.e., Villam de Birre, to Hugh de Hose or Hussey, for
military tenure. The Husseys of Galtrim were great
io6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
warriors. Their war cry, Cor-deragh-aboe, or the
cause of the great cast, was won by the courage of the
Hussey, who slew O' Kelly and his squire at the battle
of Athenry, already described.
And two years afterwards the O'Connor made his
memorable incursion at the head of a thousand horse-
men into Meath, when he laid the whole country waste
and departed laden with spoils and gifts.
The English, accordingly, began in self-defence to
plan a complete removal of this thorn in their side.
John Fitzgerald, who was said to be '' the best
and mosti renowned general of the English," mar-
shalled his forces in Kildare and the Deputy, Thomas,
Earl of Desmond, arranged to meet him at a certain
place with the Dublin contingent. But Con was on
the alert and completely frustrated his enemy's plans
by attacking the men of Kildare before they were
joined by the Deputy, and defeating them with much
loss. The next day he followed up his advantage by
giving battle to the army that was on the march from
Dublin and fighting on his own terms succeeded in
putting it to a complete rout and taking prisoner the
Deputy, Thomas, Earl of Desmond. The latter was
taken to Carbury Castle, but was soon afterwards
rescued by his own party. However, in 1468, the
brave Con ventured too far into the mouth of the
Norman lion and was taken prisoner himself, and
Teige O'Connor, " the conqueror of both English and
Irish," died of the plague.
Furthermore, as we frequently find in Irish history,
tribal feuds and family troubles were effectual where
foreign combination was unavailing. In the first place,
a quarrel between the MacGeoghegans of Moycashel,
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 107
Westmeath, and the O'Connors of Offaly led to a series
of disasters for the latter, and then MacGeoghegan,
who had hitherto assisted the O'Connors against the
English, and had themselves in 1329 defeated an
English force under Lord Thomas le Botiller, now
allied themselves to the English of the Pale ; and
although the O'Connors were able to hold their own
against the lords of Moycastle and Kilbeggan, they
suffered a severe defeat in 1493, when Cahir O'Connor
Paly and many of his kinsmen were taken prisoners
by the MacGeoghegans.
About this same time it appears that the O'Connor
had two of his own relations, Torlogh O'Connor and
Cathal O'Connor hanged. It is from this point that
we may date the downfall of the clan, which was so
powerful when united, but when divided by internal
disputes lay completely at the mercy of its foes. For
Cahir himself was murdered in 1 5 1 1 by his own kins-
men, doubtless in revenge for friends Cahir had caused
to be murdered. From that murder, the feud which
eventually split up the O'Connors in Queen Elizabeth's
reign into the Queen's O'Connors and the Irish
O'Connors, began in real earnest. This Cahir O'Con-
nor, who is described as " a general entertainer of
learned men and a distinguished military leader
among the English and Irish," was attacked near the
Monastery of Monasteroris, called after the Irish name
MacFeoris, adopted, as we have already seen, by Sir
John Bermingham, just as the names McWilliam
lochtar and McWilliam Uachtar were taken by the
Connaught Burkes, v/ho became more Irish than the
Irish themselves, and affected Irish dress, customs and
language. Within sight of the consecrated walls and
io8 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
hallowed ground of the abbey, which the hereditary
foe of the O'Connors had built nearly two centuries
before, the head of the clan was slain by his own
relations, the sons of Teige. This was in the year
1511.
The seed of dissension thus sown bore a bitter fruit
in the family of the reigning Prince of Offaly. Brian
and Cahir were brothers. Of these Brian seems to
have been the elder, but not necessarily the heir.
They do not appear to have been very loyal or affec-
tionate to one another. However, Brian, undisturbed
by this family disagreement, which was nothing out
of the beaten track of an O'Connor's life, arranged
with the O'Moores and O'Carrolls to invade the Eng-
lish Pale (1521).
The Lord Lieutenant, at the time, was Surrey, a
most capable and enterprising officer, who had already
written a very strong letter to Henry VHI. in which
he insisted that Ireland should be conquered by arms,
and that to attempt to kill rebellion by pacific
measures was impracticable. The King had advised
his officer to win the Irish chieftains " by circumspect
and politic ways," to obey the English laws, and
" following justice, to forbear to detain rebelliously
such lands and dominions as to us in right apper-
taineth." And his deputy is urged to appeal to the
reason of these chieftains and their sense of fair play,
and ''to show unto them that of necessity it is
requisite that every reasonable creature be governed
by a law." By this means the King thought an entry
could be made into the inaccessible parts of the
country, and that '' our lands detained by usurpation
might be reduced to our possession." But he directs
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 109
his Deputy to proceed ''politically, patiently, and
secretly^ that the Irish lords conceive no jealousy or
suspicion that they shall be constrained precisely to
live under our laws or put from all the lands by them
now detained."
But Surrey wrote on the i6th December, 1520,
beseeching the King that " if the King's pleasure be
not to go through with the conquest of this land,
which would be a marvellous charge, no longer to
suffer me to waste his Grace's treasure here." In this
clause Surrey had struck home. For Henry VIII.,
though prodigal in his pleasures, was a miser in
matters of State. He grudged the spending of the
;^ 1 7,000 a year that was required for the upkeep of a
respectable army in Ireland for the defence of the four
shores of the Pale. We shall see how his avarice led
him afterwards (1532) to appoint the Earl of Kildare
as Lord Deputy. And in an answer to another letter
from Henry, in which the expenses of the standing
army in Ireland were impressed upon the Deputy's
mind, Surrey wrote back on the 30th June, 1521,
saying — ''After my poor opinion, the land shall never
be brought to good order and subjection but only by
conquest, which is, at your Grace's pleasure, to be
brought to pass in two ways. One way is, if your
Grace will one year set on hand to win one country,
and another year another country, and so continue,
till at length all be won." In Surrey's opinion, a force
of 6,000 men were required : whereas the king was
only willing to give 800, and the country could not be
subdued in less than ten years, for, as he said, " the
countries here be as strong or stronger as Wales, and
the inhabitants of the same can, and do live, more
no THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
hardly than any other people, after mine opinion, in
Christendom or Turkey, and " may have three or four
thousand Irish Skottes whensoever and as often as
they will call for them." It is not, therefore, to be
imagined that such a commander, alert and alive to
all the difficulties of his task, could be found napping
even by the astute O'Connor. Indeed, he managed
to surprise O'Connor, and with the assistance of the
Mayors of Drogheda and Dublin and the loyal nobles
defeated the confederates, who retreated in different
directions. O'Connor retired to his castle at Monas-
terois, a place of great natural strength, and leaving
a strong garrison to defend it, made a dash for West-
meath, in order to draw off his enemy's forces from
his own lands and tov/ns. But while he was engaged
in devastating the farmsteads of the English settlers,
the Deputy had followed up his advantage by besieg-
ing the Irish garrison in Monasteroris with such
vigour and skill that though it was " the strongest
hold within the Irishry," they were fain to escape
under cover of the night, and to leave the castle in the
possession of the royal forces.
Surrey then employed his forces in ravaging the
lands of the absent chieftain. He " destroyed much
goodly corn and burnt many towns and houses." This
had the desired effect of drawing the O'Connor away
from the English settlements, and making him return
to defend his own, but finding that Monasteroris was
in the hands of the English, he withdrew to the
recesses of his own bogs and woods, whence he made
sudden and unexpected sallies upon the English, in
one of which Edward Plunket, Lord Dunsany, fell.
After this initial exchange of courtesies, Surrey
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE iii
withdrew his forces to the capital to collect a larger
army, while O'Connor and his allies were left at peace
for a time to prepare for another campaign, one of the
saddest, but yet one of the most interesting, in the
annals of Irish history.
In the meantime we may take a glance at the
affairs of the English Pale, where life was now more
intolerable than ever. We have seen how the English
colonists had been deprived of their moustachios by a
statute of Henry VI., lest they should be mistaken
for Celts. A similar order was made in Edward I Vs.
reign, 1467, with regard to the upper lips of the Irish-
men who had made their home in the counties of
Dublin, Meath, Uriel (Louth) and Kildare, and had
not been allocated to the various Irish towns in the
country. The fact that there were a " multitude " of
such people to be sworn as the King's liegemen within
the borders of the Pale shows that the statute of Kil-
kenny was more honoured in the breach than in the
observance. A feeble attempt was now made to
assimilate these Irish people to their English neigh-
bours in appearance and in name. They were ordered
to remove "the beard above their mouth," to go
" like an Englishman in apparel," and to " take to
him an English surname of a town — as 'Sutton, Ches-
ter, Trym, Skryne, Cork, Kinsale, or colour, as white,
black, brown ; or art or science, as smith or carpenter ;
or office, as cook, butler ; and he and his issue shall
use this name under pain of forfeiting of his goods
yearly." From this assortment of worthy if not
musical English names the Kinsellaghs, MacNamaras,
O'Molloys, O'Shaughnessys and O'Morchoes had to
take their choice under pain of losing their goods.
112 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
That was the humour of the statute. Upon this
compulsory exchange of the Irishman's surname, and
the threatened forfeiture of his property, a Celt of a
later age might have moralised somewhat in the words
of lago in Shakspeare's Othello —
Who steals my purse steals trash ! 'tis something, nothing^
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor, indeed.
At a recent meeting in Dublin a certain worthy
citizen with an English name objected to having it
"turned upside down in Irish." But what must have
been the feelings of a Diarmaid O'Halloran when
addressed as Jeremiah Black, or a Timothy McCarthy
when styled Tim Brown, or a Cathal O' Carroll when
called Charles White, or a Torlogh O'Donoghoe to
have to assume the brief appellation of Terence Gray !
It was bad enough to lose one's moustache, the
growth of which had been so anxiously watched and
tended ; it w^as worse to be compelled to lay aside the
picturesque and highly coloured garment in which the
Irish, who rejoiced in colours, arrayed their muscular
forms, and don the sober livery of an Englishman ;
but it " was the most unkindest cut of all " to be
shorn of their musical and high sounding names which
they had carried v\ath more or less distinction since
the Milesian conquest, and which reminded them, not
merely of their own family, but also of the sept with
whose varying fortunes their deepest sympathies and
highest sentiments were associated.
In the meantime, the Irish Parliament, which might
have become a constitutional and representative
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 113
assembly, had by reason of the lawlessness of the
country, which made it dangerous for the country
members of the Houses to attend at Dublin, Kilkenny,
Drogheda or Trim (1416), at which places the parlia-
ments were then summoned, and owing to the control
exercised by the officials of the Crown, had been
reduced to a condition of utter helplessness and use-
lessness. Before the ruin of the English Pale it had
met regularly and transacted its business in an inde-
pendent spirit. But it was now but a pliable instrument
in the hands of the king and his advisers, and seems
to have been only summoned when subsidies were
required by the English Government for its foreign
wars. The lords of the Upper House, peers, prelates
and priors, were conspicuous for their absence. Nobles,
like Desmond and Ormonde claimed exemption ;
while the bishops and abbots sent proctors to represent
them. Hence the custom arose of summoning two
proctors from each diocese, who sat with the knights,
citizens and burgesses in the lower house, and claimed
to be representatives of the clergy and entitled to vote.
The knights of the shires, who had been summoned
in Ireland since 1264 were not a strong body, as there
were only four shires in the Pale, while the burgesses,
who had been summoned since 1295, could only attend
from a few towns. Many of these had not even gone
through the formality of an election, having received
the writ directly from the king. It would, indeed, be
hard to find an assembly less deserving of the name
of Parliament. It was simply a Dublin Council in
the hands of the king's officer. But its history proves
the truth of the saying, that " even a worm will turn."
For this generally supine and invertebrate assembly
H
114 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
dared on one occasion at least to act with a spirit
worthy of Stephen Langton, Simon de Montfort and
other makers of England and founders of its freedom.
It was when the Duke of York crossed the Irish Sea
in 1459, having been deserted by his own forces, who
were seized with a panic when Henry VI. marched
against him at Ludlow, and threw himself upon the
loyalty and devotion of the English Pale. He had
been sent by Henry VI., who wanted to be rid of him,
to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant in 1449, and had won
golden opinions from Norman, Saxon and Celt by his
noble character and high ideals. He had left Ireland
in 1454 to assume the protectorate in England, but
now returned to the land where " he had exceedingly
tyed unto him the hearts of the noblemen and gentle-
men," and was received in a different manner from
that in which any other English protector was greeted.
Although under the attainder of the English Govern-
ment, in which the Lancastrian party had for the time
gained the upper hand, the Irish house acknowledged
Richard of York as its Viceroy, and supported by
him asserted its independence and its right to be
bound only by its own laws, and to coin money, and
declared that no Irish subject was bound to answer
any writs save those issued under the great seal of
Ireland.
These were no mere words, as was proved by the
terrible earnestness with which the Irish nobles,
especially of the houses of Kildare and Desmond, some
twenty years afterwards threw themselves into the
cause of Lambert Simnel, who personated the Earl
of Warwick, and was crowned in Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin, with great pomp by the Bishop of
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 115
Meath in May, i486, a coronation which was attended
by the Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy with " the
lords of the Council and other great men of quality."
The crown won by the future scullion and falconer of
Henry VII. consisted of a diadem taken from an
image of the Virgin in the nunnery of St. Mary.
And the sham monarch was carried, according to an
old Irish usage, upon the shoulders of an Irish giant
" called Great Darcy of Flatten " to Dublin Castle,
and escorted by 2,000 German troops under Martin
Schwartz, sent by the Duchess of Burgundy, who
supported the claims of the pretender who was intro-
duced to the Earl of Kildare by a priest. Sir Richard
Symonds, as the son of the Duke of Clarence. In
Smith's " History of Waterford," we read how John
Butler, Mayor of Waterford, refused to receive the
pretender, and how the Butlers collected their forces
and prepared to resist the claims of Kildare's proteg6.
But numbers of the Earl of Kildare's faction, including
Thomas Fitzgerald, his own brother, followed Simnel
to Lancashire, and shared in his defeat at Stoke and
the leniency with which the king treated him. And
when the fraud was discovered the Irish still believed
in him. He was followed by Perkin Warbeck, who
landed in Cork in 1490, and personated Richard
Plantagenet and found many adherents in Ireland,
who suffered for their hotheadedness in Cornwall and
on the block.
Even though the utterances of this parliament of
1459 were dignified and noble, they brought sorrow-
to Ireland, for they alienated the feelings of the
Lancastrian party from Ireland and its parliament.
And in 1492 Henry VII., who could not forget that
ii6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the house of York was the popular party with the
English of the Pale, or forgive the Geraldines' adher-
ence to the Duke of York's family, superseded the
Earl of Kildare and appointed Walter Fitz-Simon,
Archbishop of Dublin, as Deputy in his room, and
Sir James Butler as High Treasurer in the stead of
Fitz-Eustace, the earl's father-in-law. And shortly
afterwards (1494) sent over Sir Edward Poynings, who
drove back the native Irish and summoned the historic
parliament of Drogheda which, after passing a number
of useful laws for the benefit of the natives and the
protection of the dwellers in the Pale from the extor-
tions of the great lords, took away all initiative from
the Irish Parliament and reduced it to the dependent
condition it occupied for centuries, when it was
alternately the mouthpiece of the Geraldines and the
Butlers, but in which men had once acted with spirit.
Among the new regulations was one declaring it to be
unlawful to incite the natives to war, to engage in
private hostilities, and to practise coyne and livery.
Owners of march lands were required to reside on
their lands and under heavy penalties were ordered to
see that no Irish rebel or enemy crossed the border.
Citizens were not to become the retainers of the lords,
and judges were only to hold office during the king's
pleasure. The Statutes of Kilkenny (1367) were also
renewed, with the exception of those relating to the
use of the Irish language and the non-use of saddles
— a custom which had become too general to be put
down by edict.
The Statutes of Kilkenny may sound very terrible
in our ears ; but it was a voice in the wilderness during
the century and more, that elapsed between the date
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 117
of its enactment and this Act of Sir Edward Poynings
(1494). Its object had been Hke the Mosaic legislation,
to raise a barrier between the English of the Pale and
the Irish inhabitants, and to check every kind of
communication between the two races. Hardiman
described it as " no more than a peevish and revenge-
ful expression Duke Lionel felt from the opposition
he had met with and the loss of the lands he had
come over to claim." The purpose of the Act which
condemned marriage alliances, gossiped and fosterage
with the Irish, the use of the Irish language, and the
Brehon law, styled by the Drogheda Parliament as
*'the wicked and damnable law called Brehon Law,"
and the adoption of Irish customs and dress was to
prevent the English becoming more Irish than the
Irish themselves, and like the lotus eaters forgetting
their own country. But the statute was in many
respects a dead letter ; for it was not founded on public
opinion, was not granted in response to the demands
of any portion of the English community, was resented
by the English as well as by the Irish, and could not
be enforced without a police or military force. Such
a statute was a sign of weakness and savoured rather
of hysterics than politics.
Poynings' Act of 1494, which is rather extrava-
gantly styled by Ritchie as ''the most disgraceful Act
ever passed by an independent legislature," meant
nothing more than the removal of the rag of power
and the simulacrum of rule, which had been absurdly
paraded by the Irish Parliament for some centuries,
and the exorcism of the ghost of the spirit of freedom
which had haunted for many years their Council
Chamber, a strange visitant which on the occasion that
ii8 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
it appeared, bewildered the members themselves and
alarmed their opponents. Henry VII. was determined
to remove whatever sting the Irish Parliament might
still possess. And he may have had the idea of still
further crippling the broken power of the English
soldiers in the presence of the Celtic population, and
of provoking the latter to repeat their incursions, so
as to prevent the colonists from ever becoming a
menace to the Welsh house of Tudor.
The clause of the Act which evoked so much
criticism was to the effect that — " no parliament be
holden hereafter in the said land (of Ireland) but at
such season as the King's Lieutenant and Council
there first do certify the king, under the great seals
of that land, the causes and considerations, and acts
affirmed by the king and his council, to be good afid
expedient for that land, and his licence thereupon, as
well in affirmation of the said causes and acts, as to
summon the said parliament under his great seal of
England had and obtained ; that done, a parliament
to be had and holden after this form and effect before
rehearsed : and if any parliament be holden in that
land hereafter, contrary to the form and provision
aforesaid, it be deemed void and of none effect in law."
Consequently no parliament could be summoned in
Ireland without the permission of the king and his
council, and no bills could be introduced into any
parliament so summoned without the king's consent.
The Irish Houses of Parliament were in this manner
reduced to an office for the registration of English law
in Ireland. The result was not altogether so bad as
represented ; for by this means the Anglo-Norman
factions, the Butlers and Geraldines, whose councils
ACTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 119
and opinions were voiced from time to time in Dublin,
as now one and now the other gained the predomin-
ance, were held in check. A sketch of these rival
factions is required to explain the political situation
which ended with so much disaster to the O'Connors,
and will be given in the following chapter. It will be
sujfficient to add here that this was not the first or the
last attempt to muzzle the Irish Houses of Parliament.
In 1376 Edward III., desiring to obtain a grant of
subsidies for his wars, had summoned the bishops,
peers, and representatives of Ireland to a parliament
in London. They attended, but under protest. The
protest of the Archbishop of Armagh may be read in
Leland's History of Ireland (l. 363-397): "We do
not grant," it ran, " to the representatives we have
elected any power of assenting to burthens or taxes
to be imposed on us or our clergy." In 1460 another
declaration of independence was made ; Cromwell
held the next union parliament at Westminster ; and
in 1 801 the parliaments were united.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Geraldines and Butlers.
We have said that one good result of Poynings' Act
was the restraint upon the perpetual feuds of these
rival houses of Kildare and Ormonde. This was a
boon to the law-abiding gentry and citizens of Dublin,
Kilkenny, Waterford, and other towns, whose peace
was disturbed by the tumults caused by these nobles
and the brawls of their retainers and followers in the
streets, and who, utterly indifferent for the most part
to the casus belli, might well exclaim with Mercutio
— *' A plague o' both your houses ! " For just as
Verona was kept in perpetual ferment by the
Montagues and Capulets, the towns and villages of
the Pale were disturbed by these rival factions, whose
battle cries Cromabo and ^«//^r^^^ resounded at every
hour of the night, but were made penal offences by
the new Act.
A brief review of these distinguished families may
not be out of place. The Butlers of Ormonde, which
eventually became all powerful in Ireland, and still
retains much of its former prestige, are descended from
Theobald Walter, a nephew of Thomas, Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was made hereditary Chief Butler to
King Henry II. Theobald obtained grants of land
in Kilkenny and Tipperary. One of his descendants,
Edmund le Botiller, was created Earl of Carrick in
131 5, and his son, James Butler, who married a kins-
woman of Edward III., was created Earl of Ormonde
THE GBRALDINES AND BUTLERS 121
(Oir [Mumhan or East Munster) in 1328, and was
made Lord Lieutenant the following year. In 1391
the Earl of Ormonde purchased Kilkenny Castle from
the descendants of Strongbow's granddaughter Isabel,
and the influence of the family was gradually extended
by successful marriages in England. In Ireland, this
house by degrees became omnipotent in Kilkenny and
North Tipperary, where the English colonists had
established many castles, towns and monasteries. But
in the city of Dublin the house of Kildare, living in
greater proximity to the metropolis, was naturally the
stronger.
The greatest representative of this family was the
gallant marquis who held Ireland for King Charles II.
against Cromwell, but whose army was defeated by
Colonel Jones in the battle of Rathmines, then some
distance outside the city walls. The peaceful citizens
of that prosperous and populous township little dream
of that fateful night in March 1649 when a gallant
little force of 1,500 of Ormonde's troops under Captain
Purcell set out in darkness to assault the city, which
was in the hands of Jones, the Parliamentary general,
but their plans miscarried, and, like the Highland
Brigade that marched upon death at Magersfontein,
were cut to pieces, and then the main body in the
camp being suddenly attacked by the Dublin garrison,
who had followed up their success with lightning
speed, were completely routed.
The Butlers were always at variance with the
Geraldines ; and doubtless from a spirit of rivalry
which dictated the smallest details as well as the main
lines of their policy, selected opposite sides in every
civM war. Around the Lancastrian standard were to
122 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
be found the Butlers, while the Geraldines were
Yorkist to the backbone. And afterwards the Butlers
became the staunchest supporters of the English
Crown ; while the Geraldines frequently followed an
opposite course, and produced some worthy rebels.
The Geraldines, the rival house of Kildare, are said
to have been of Florentine origin, and this connection
is mentioned in the Earl of Surrey's sonnet on one of
the earl's sisters, afterwards Lady Clinton, whom he
greatly admired during his term of office — 1520-1522.
From Tuscane came my Ladye's worthy race,
Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seate,
The Western Isle whose pleasant shore doth face,
Wild Cambre's clififes did give her lively heate.
One record that Campion saw mentioned a
Geraldine, the first Earl of Kildare, in the year 1289,
and another " saith there dyed a Geraldine, the fourth
Earle of Kildare, in anno 1 3 16." The eldest son of
the earl was called Baron of Ophalye. The same
authority states that he read of a Geraldine '' Lord of
Ophalye" in the year 1270.
An interesting story is told of the manner in which
the Leinster Fitzgeralds took for their crest an ape
with a broken chain. Woodstock Castle, near Athy,
went on fire, and all the inmates were saved but the
infant heir, who was left behind in the flames.
Suddenly to the delight of the terrified people a scream
was heard on the battlements and a great ape was
seen making its way along the parapet and down the
sides of the wall into safety with the babe tenderly
held in its mouth.
This family became in the following century all
powerful, reached the zenith of its glory in
THE GERALDINES AND BUTLERS 123
Henry VI IPs. reign, and delighted to measure its
strength with the Ormondes. Neither family could
like or trust the other. A remarkable casein point
was the conference between Sir James Ormonde and
the great Earl of Kildare in S. Patrick's Cathedral.
This Earl of Kildare had been appointed Lord
Deputy by Henry VH. in 1496. He had been
attainted by Poynings' Parliament and sent a prisoner
to the Tower, which he left to take up the position of
Governor of Ireland. It is said that he owed his
promotion from his precarious position, which might
have led to the block, to his own presence of mind
and adroitness in the royal presence. For when
accused before the king by the Archbishop of Cashel
and the Bishop of Meath of having burnt down the
Cathedral of Cashel, the earl admitted it. "Spare
your proofs," quoth he, '' I own I did burn the church,
but I thought the Archbishop was in it." When
advised by the king to provide himself with good
counsel, he answered : '' If I may choose I shall have
the best counsel in England." And when the king
enquired who that might be, he replied, " Marry, the
king himself." The bishop then made many charges
concluding with the words — " All Ireland, sire, cannot
govern this earl." "Then," said the king: "the
earl shall rule all Ireland."
This story may be apocryphal, but the fact remains
that the king, a wise monarch with a shrewd know-
ledge of human nature, had seen the failure of the
policy of governing Ireland through exclusively Eng-
lish officials, and had decided to entrust the Govern-
ment to the most turbulent and powerful nobleman,
who might possibly be converted by the complimen
124 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
into a trusty supporter. So it fell out. For the Earl
of Kildare never wavered in his allegiance to Henry VII.
Another consideration which weighed with the king
was that of expense. Of a saving disposition, he saw
in the generous and open-handed Irishman one who
would be likely to undertake the duties of Government
without the emoluments of office.
Returning to Ireland as governor for the king, the
earl strove to carry out his compact loyally. He
attacked the Irish insurgents, and defeated them in
several places. He made himself strong in the land
and his name feared. He became reconciled with the
Archbishop of Armagh, but his conference with Sir
James Ormonde was not equally successful. Invited
to a personal interview to explain his conduct. Sir
James marched with a large bodyguard to Dublin,
where the citizens and followers of Kildare armed
themselves in self-defence. S. Patrick's Cathedral, the
place appointed for the interview, became rapidly
filled with armed men. These soon grew impatient
at the length of the conference, and the retainers of
both noblemen discharged their arrows in every direc-
tion, damaging the church and its ornaments, for
which profanation the Mayor of Dublin was con-
demned, it is said, to walk barefoot every year on
Corpus Christi Day. Of this unpleasant duty the
Reformation has relieved the Lord Mayors of that
city. In alarm Sir James Ormonde took refuge in
the Chapter House, bolting the heavy door after him.
Having pacified his followers, and quelled the tumult
with a few stern words, Kildare hastened after
Ormonde, and entreated him to come forth. But he
refused. Whereupon a piece was cut out of the door
THE GERALDINES AND BUTLERS 125
by order of Kildare, so that they might clasp hands
through the door. But Ormonde hesitated, and then
Kildare passed his hand through, and the other clasped
it. The door was then opened, and the two noble-
men embraced in view of their followers. This door,
which witnessed this dramatically-conceived, but
hollow, compact is among the well-preserved treasures
of the cathedral.
Although the interview ended with a show of
friendship there was little love lost between the rivals.
This was demonstrated by the fact that shortly after-
wards Kildare gave his daughter, Margaret, in marriage
to Pierce Butler, Earl of Ormond, a rival of Sir James,
who is described by Stanihurst as "a plain, simple
gentleman, saving in feats of arms." But Margaret,
his countess, who espoused the quarrel of the Butlers
against the Geraldines, then under Earl Gerald, who
had succeeded his father in 15 13 as Lord Deputy of
Ireland, seems to have inherited the masterful and
resourceful character of her father. Here is Stanihurst's
vignette of her : " a lady of such port that all estates
of the realm crouched unto her, and such a politician
that nothing was thought substantially debated with-
out her advice. She was tall of stature, and masculine ;
very bountiful, a fast friend, a bitter enemy, seldom
disliking whom once she liked, not easily liking whom
once she disliked." It may have been through her
influence that Pierce, Earl of Ormonde, was made
Lord Deputy on the recommendation of the noble and
gallant Earl of Surrey, who departed from these shores,
amid universal regret, in 1521. This Pierce was
called Pierce the Red, and it was with regard to his
oppression that the very unceremonious message was
126 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
sent to Henry VIII. from Gillpatrick of Ossory :
" Stand my lord king, my lord Gillpatrick has sent me
unto thee to say that if thou dost not chastise Peter
the Red he will make war upon thee."
The Earl of Kildare, the father of Margaret Butler
• — Henry VII's nominee — proved an excellent ally of
England. During his term of office, 1496-1513, the
Crown regained the authority it had lost, and the
Pale was secured against the encroachments of the
tribes. But Kildare was not content with merely re-
building the fenced cities and border castles of the
colony, he carried his arms into Connaught in order
to check the turbulence of Ulick Bourke, Lord
Clanrickarde, who also rejoiced in the name of
McVVilliam. Supported by his northern allies, O'Neill
and O'Donnell, and the trained bands of Dublin and the
Pale, Kildare met the forces of Connaught and the
clans of Munster, including the O'Carrolls of Ely, at
Knocktuadh (Knocktow), near Galway city, and dis-
persed them with great slaughter, entering the city on
the following day. In the battle of Knocktuadh,
fought in the same picturesque district of Connemara,
to which the descendants of Conmac, son of the famous
Queen Maev, have given their name, and which had
witnessed the half mythical battle of Moytura, between
the Firbolgs and the Tuatha De Danann, Nugent,
lord of Delvin, behaved with gallantry. Kildare's
forces were inferior in numbers, and many of his
officers advised a retreat. Upon this Nugent spurred
his horse forward against the Irish, and hurled a spear
with such dexterity that it struck one of the Burkes,
and then rode back to his own troop, which immedia-
tely charged the enemy. It is urged by Sir John
THE GERALDINES AND BUTLERS 127
Davis against Kildare that " his journey was not
made by warrant of the king, or upon his charge, but
only on a private quarrel of the Earl of Kildare/'
Private animosity lay at the bottom of the whole
matter. The Lord Deputy's sister, Lady Eleanora
Fitzgerald, had married Henry O'Neill, and their son,
Turlough, had a quarrel with another O'Neill. The
Lord Deputy invaded Ulster to support his nephew^
while Ulick Burke, Lord Clanrickarde, who had a
private grudge against the Deputy, took the opportu-
nity of gathering the western clans against him.
The result, however, was good for the English power^
for it showed the Irish '' rebels " and " enemies "
that the days of English decadence were ended, and
that the King's Deputy was not only prepared to take
the offensive, but likely to prove dangerous ; and it
crushed for a time the power of the O'Briens of
Thomond, who had been a veritable thorn in the side
of the English, from the days (1369) when Murragh-
en-Ranagh, or Morris of the Fern, collected his law-
less bands in the wilds of Clare, so called from the
c/ar or wooden bridge across the Fergus river, and
sweeping over the hills, destroyed Killaloe, Buttevant,
Inchiquin and other towns, and demonstrated the truth
of the Welsh historian's words — " When the Irish
are bad, you can no where meet with worse ; but if
they be good, you can scarcely find better." By
Poynings' Act of 1494 an attempt was made to silence
for ever the voice of Anglo-Irish independence ; by
the battle of Knocktow in 1497 the Irish septs received
a salutary lesson.
CHAPTER IX.
Silken Thomas and The O'Connors.
We are now drawing near to one of the most in-
teresting, but, from the Irish standpoint, one of the
most disastrous campaigns in the history of the Dukes
of Leinster and of the O'Connor clan, which culminated
in the foolish and fatal rebellion of Silken Thomas,
In 15 1 3 Henry II's Deputy, the Earl of Kildare,
during a campaign against the O'Carrolls of Ely,
which will be noticed in the chapter on that clan, and
was succeeded by his son, Gerald, one of the most
brilliant and most unfortunate of the Geraldines. At
the very beginning of his office he was attacked by
Wolsey, who had been made Chancellor in 15 15, and
hated the Geraldines. In consequence of Wolsey's
representations, the earl was summoned to London
in 1 5 19 to answer the charge of assuming sovereign
power in the land. But his wit, presence, and courage
carried him out of his difficulties. He replied to
Wolsey's accusations before Henry VIII. in the same
manner as his father had defended himself in the
presence of Henry VII. "Would, my lord," he said,
" that you and I had changed kingdoms but for one
month. I could .gather more crumbs in that little
space than twice the revenues of my poor earldom.
Upbraid me not with such an odious storm. I slumber
in a hard cabin ; you sleep softly on a bed of down.
I serve under the cope of heaven, you are served
under a gorgeous canopy. I drink water out of a
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 129
skull ; you drink wine out of a golden cup. My
courser i ; trained to the field, your jennet is taught to
amble. You are begraced, belorded, crouched and
knelt to, but I find small grace with our Irish borderers
except I cut them by the knee.''
The case looked black against the earl. He had,
indeed, made common cause with the '' Irish enemies "
in many a conflict, and was more popular with the
Irish chieftains than his rival, the Earl of Ormonde.
But his personal popularity had won him many friends
at the English Court, where he married the Lady
Elizabeth Grey, a daughter of the house of Dorset
and he was finally acquitted, and attended Henry at
"the Field of the Cloth of Gold," (1520), where his
splendour and extravagance were conspicuous. The
Earl of Surrey, who had been Lord Deputy, resigned
in 1522, and in 1523 Kildare returned to Ireland to
find a strong party against him, and many of his
castles destroyed by the Earl of Ormonde, who was
now ordered to resign office in favour of his rival.
But Kildare did not enjoy his ascendency long. He
was ordered to arrest one of his friends, Desmond,
who was carrying on an intrigue with Francis I. of
France, the enemy of Henry VIII. ever since that un-
fortunate wrestling bout at the Field of the Cloth of
Gold ; but he did not do so.
Summoned to London to explain, he was cast into
the Tower from which the good offices of his friends
at last set him free. He returned to Ireland with Sir
William Skeffington (1530) and succeeded him as Lord
Deputy in 1532. But his fortunes were materially
affected by two alliances which he had previously
made. He gave his daughters in marriage to two
I
I30 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Irish chieftains, Fearganainm(the man without a name)
O'Connor of Offaly and Bryan O'Carroll of Ely, in
order to strengthen his position against the powerful
house of Ormonde and to win popularity among the
Irish "enemies." But the consequences of these
alliances proved fatal to the earl. For owing to his
enforced absence in England the O'Connor had risen
in revolt and treacherously seized the person of Richard
Nugent, Lord Devlin, who was Lord Deputy at the
time (i 526-1 528), and thrown him into prison. Con-
cerning this outrage Sir Piers Butler, who had by order
of Henry VIII. resigned his title, Earl of Ormonde,
in favour of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and taken that of
Earl of Ossory, wrote a virtuous letter saying — " After
the taking of the Baron of Delvin treacherously by
the Earl of Kildare's son-in-law O'Connor, all the Irish
determined to have joined in aid with the said
O'Connor for the destruction of your English Pale
through the practice of the said Earl of Kildare." He
also adds — '' Kildare's object at this time is to compel
the Irish to combine and confederate with him, having
no regard to the King's Deputy. He would make
all the land believe that the Deputy is sent only to be
his instrument " — words which w^ere calculated to rouse
the ire of a monarch whose policy might be summed
up in the w^ords of another potentate, Letat cest vioi.
In 1 525, Kildare had written an equally self-righteous
letter concerning the misdemeanours of the Earl of
Ormonde, which is preserved in the Carew manuscripts.
In it he stated that " all the churches for the most
part, within the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary,
are in such extreme decay by provision, that no divine
service is kept there, and it shall be w^ell proved that
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 131
few or none laboureth to the apostle of any benefice
there without the consent of the said earl or my lady
his wife, by whom he is only ruled, which are the
maintainers of all such provisions, in so much as they
lately maintained certain provisos against the said
earl's son, being the Archbishop of Cashel, contrary to
the king's letters directed in the favour of the said
archbishop. If the king do not provide a remedy
there will be no more Christianitie than in the middle
of Turkey."
Sir Piers had thus his revenge upon his brother-in-
law for the criticism passed upon himself and his
countess, whom Campion described as " a rare woman,
and able for wisdome to govern a whole realme had
not her stomacke (pride) overruled herself" He also
made capital for himself out of his rival's connexions
with the O'Connors and O'Carrolls — connexions which
show the importance and prestige of those septs. His
wife, to whom Kildare referred, was a singularly able
person, and assisted her husband during his term of
office as Lord Justice, to which he had been elected
by the King's Council in S. Mary's Abbey in Diuelin
(Dublin), who were overawed by his army of Irishmen,
" having captaine over them O'Connor, O'More, and
O'Carroll" (1528). Stanihurst, whose vignette of her
has been elsewhere cited, states that she was '• the
only meane at those dayes whereby her husband's
country was reclaimed from the sluttish and unclean
Irish custom to the English habite, bedding and house-
keeping."
Another event which hastened the ruin of Kildare
was, strange to say, the fall of Wolsey, his enemy,
whose proceedings as Lord Chancellor against Kildare
132 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
for conniving at the evil deeds of his cousin of
Desmond are recorded in Campion's History (pp. 164-
171). The fall of his great foe in 1529 not only freed
the chief of the Geraldines from uneasy apprehensions
but also from a wholesome restraint. Kildare seems
to have let himself ''go," as the phrase is, after
Wolsey's disgrace ; for, when sent over to quell the
rising of the O'Connors, who had, in the meantime,
seized the Deputy, the Baron of Delvin, he seized the
opportunity of revenging himself on the Earl of
Ossory and the Butlers for all the evil they had
wrought him. Of a turbulent and ungovernable
temper, which was the common characteristic of the
men of his age, Kildare had many qualities which
endeared him to the Irish. For he was, like his
father, " not forgetful of benefits, and not unmindful
of injuries." A story, which is given by Ware in his
Aimals, reveals the quality of his temper. The earl
had been wounded by a shot from the castle of Birr,
which he was besieging, and as he lay groaning in his
pam, a common soldier standing near him said : " My
lord, why do you sigh so ? I myself was thrice shot
with bullets, and yet am whole," to which the earl re-
plied : " I wish you had received the fourth in my
stead." It was, probably, the same Earl of Kildare
who drew a skean, or Irish dagger, upon the Bishop
of Kildare, in the presence of more than 3(X) persons,
in the hall of the house of Connall. (Carew MS.
1. 151.)
Having the reins of government in his hands, he
simply exercised his power to advance his own family
and friends, and to overthrow his enemies. He raided
and harried the lands of Ormonde in a merciless
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 133
manner. Followed by an armed rabble — which cir-
cumstance gave some foundation for the Earl of
Sussex's statement to Queen Elizabeth in 1560 — " On
the faction of the Geraldines depend all the evil-
disposed men in the realm" — he wreaked his ven-
geance here and there, and conducted himself in a
manner which would seem outrageous to anyone pos-
sessed of statecraft. But Kildare was no statesman.
And his recklessness spelt ruin for himself and his
house. For he gave his foes the very handle they
wanted against him. The result was that charges of
treason and misgovernment were made against the
earl by the council which gave a sad picture of the
Pale and its sufferings in a document it presented to
the Master of the Rolls in 1533 — a very damning docu-
ment against the Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy.
Among the things complained of by the council were
— (i) that neither English "order, tongue, or habit"
was used, nor the king's laws obeyed above twenty
miles in compass ; (2) the taking of coyne and livery
and other extortions; (3) that owing to default of
English inhabitants Irish tenants were being ad-
mitted ; (4) that the English lords and gentlemen,
instead of keeping English yeomen, employ horse-
men and knaves who live upon the king's subjects,
and that they keep no hospitality, but lire upon the
poor ; (5) the liberties of the temporal lords ; (6) the
black rents and tributes levied by the Irish upon the
king's subjects ; (7) that " when the Deputies go upon
the Irishmen by the aid of the king's subjects for re-
dress of their nightly and daily robberies, they keep
all they get to their own use, and restore nothing to
the poor people " ; (8) the frequent change of
134 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Deputies ; (9) the negligent keeping of king's records,
and appointment of unlearned and incompetent clerks
to the offices of the Four Courts ; and (10) the loss of
the king's revenues, customs, and manors. This
State Paper, signed by two archbishops, the Bishop of
Meath, the Prior of Kilmainham, the Abbots of St,
Thomas's, St. Mary's, and Louth, and three judges,
reveals an unfortunate state of affairs in the Pale, for
which Kildare was at once taken to task. He was
summoned for the fourth time to England to answer
these charges, but was reluctant to go. But before he
went he committed two more grievous faults, which
hastened his own downfall. He removed out of
Dublin Castle all the king's arms, artillery, and muni-
tions of war for the fortification and furnishing of his
own castles, in case his enemies should attack them in
his absence ; and he appointed his son, Lord Thomas,
a vain youth, called Silken Thomas, to act as his
vice-deputy. On his arrival in London the earl was
cast into prison, and, with the express design of
forcing the hands of the Geraldines, the cruel report
was spread by a letter, which reached the hands of
Silken Thomas, that Kildare had been executed, and
that a similar fate was in store for his uncles.
Driven to desperation by this cunningly-devised
document, Silken Thomas resolved to cast off his
allegiance, and to join the O'Connors and O'Neills,
who were in revolt. But instead of seizing the castle
and the city, when his foes were unprepared, he de-
vised a theatrical exodus from his office, which gave
them the necessary time. Galloping into the city, at
the head of a large troop, he rode to S. Mary's Abbey,
where the Council was sitting, and, bursting into the
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 135
chamber with his followers, he advanced to the foot of
the dais, and proceeded to renounce his allegiance to
the king. Archbishop Cromer, his father's friend
made a strong but futile remonstrance and appeal in
the English language, which the Geraldine's followers
did not understand. But while Lord Thomas stood
irresolute, his Irish bard broke into a song of praise of
the silken lord in the Irish language, which completely
turned his foolish head, and, in his excitement, the
boy seized the sword of state and hurled it to the
ground, and strode out of the Council Chamber amid
the martial strains of his bard's song and shouts of
'' Cromaboo." The rubicon was crossed in accord-
ance with the Latin saying, " Quem Deus vult perdere
dementat" (1534).
Among the staunchest of the Geraldine's allies at
this time were the O'Connors of Offaly with whom he
was related. They also suffered in his subsequent
disasters. As this is not a history of the House of
Leinster, we may hurrry over these ill-advised and
wanton deeds of the young lord, described by the F'our
Masters in glowing language, and his plunder of Fin-
gal, on which the city of Dublin, then ravaged by a
pestilence, depended for corn ; his seizure of the
children who had been removed to the country for safety
by their anxious parents ; his futile assaults on the
city which were repulsed with loss by the trained
bands and valiant citizens, who took courage when
they perceived that the arrows of the enemy were
headless, and seized his cannon and dispersed his Irish
gallowglasses ; and his barbarous arrest and murder of
Allen, the Archbishop of Dublin, who was escaping
to England in a vessel which unfortunately was stranded
136 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
near Howth, and the unhappy prelate kneeling before
the young lord and pleading for mercy was '' brained
like an ox." For the execrable deed he and his
accomplices, John Telynge and Nicholas Wafer, who
took the archbishop prisoner and brought him to
Artayne, and John Fitzgerald, Oliver Fitzgerald, James
Delahide, Edward Rorke and " divers others evil-
disposed persons who most shamefully, tyrannously
and cruelly murdered and put to death the said arch-
bishop, were duly excommunicated, accursed and
anathematized." *' The place," writes Campion, '' is
ever since hedged in, overgrown and unfrequented in
detestation of the deed."
Forces at last arrived from England under the com-
mand of Sir William Skeffington, whom the Irish
called '-'the Gunner," and Sir William Brereton.
And Lord Thomas having in vain sought the assistance
of Piers Butler, the Earl of Ossory, with whom he
offered to divide the dominion of Ireland, but who
stiffly replied — " If my country were laid waste, my
castles won and prostrated, and myself an exile, yet
still would I persevere in my duty to my king " — placed
a strong garrison in his castle at Maynooth, which he
deemed impregnable, and betook himself with the
majority of his followers to the bogs and woods of
Offaly. Then he moved from place to place, gather-
ing followers and placing garrisons in his castles at
Rathangan, Leix, Carlow and Athy, while Skeffington.
the Deputy, lay ill in Dublin. But in March the
following year, 1535, Sir William Brereton assumed
the command, and marched with a well-equipped
army and a siege train of artillery to attack the castle
of Maynooth. After a siege of some twelve days a
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 137
breach was made in the walls, and the governor,
Christopher Paris, who is said to have earned the re-
ward of Judas, ended the matter by betraying the
castle into the hands of the English, who carried it by
assault with but slight resistance. The news of the
fall of the fortress and the noise of the English cannon
caused Kildare's half-armed kerne and gallowglasses
to disperse in all directions in a general saiwe qui
;peut. Silken Thomas, who found a refuge with the
O'Connors of Offaly, the O'Moores and O'Briens,
having failed in his attempt to procure aid from France,
Spain, or the Pope, was finally induced by Sir Leonard
Grey to surrender himself under promise of the king's
pardon, and was sent to the Tower, where his father
had died a few years before of grief and shame for the
madness of his son.
Here he was soon afterwards joined by his five
uncles who had been invited to a banquet by the Lord
Deputy, and were arrested by his orders and conveyed
to the Tower. For the king's wish was to destroy the
obnoxious race root and branch, and his promise of
forgiveness was but a pretence. For within twelve
months the uncles and their ill-advised nephew paid
the penalty for belonging to a house which had grown
so dangerous in the eyes of the English monarchs,
being executed at Tyburn.
The king's hope of annihilation was, however, dis-
appointed. For two sons of Gerald, Earl of Kildare,
by his second wife, the Lady Elizabeth Grey, escaped
his vengeance. The elder of these, Gerald, was
brought by Thomas Leverous, afterwards Bishop of
Kildare, to Lady Mary O'Connor, who protected him
for a time in the wilds of Offaly from the dangers that
138 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
threatened him. He was then sent to the French
Court by his aunt, who discovered that her husband,
O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, was about to betray him to
the EngHsh Govermnment, and finally found a refuge
with his relation, Cardinal Pole, at Rome. In his
period of exile his life was on one occasion provi-
dentially preserved for the restoration of his family.
Hunting in Italy, his horse fell into a chasm and was
killed. The boy's fall was broken by some branches
on the side of the precipice, to which he had clung for
some hours, until he was rescued from his perilous
position by some travellers, who had been attracted to
the place by the barking of the young earl's dog.
After Henry VIII.'s death he returned to England,
and was kindly received by Edward VI., who gave
him some of his family honours. Eventually he re-
turned to Ireland in Mary's reign, and was put into
possession of his father's estates, but he was re-
garded by Elizabeth as the most dangerous person
in Ireland.
During the period of his exile the Butlers had
taken an ample revenge. The lands of Kildare were
plundered and harried. The peasantry suffered
greatly, and their loyalty to their ancient lords, the
Geraldines, was intensified by the cruelty of the
Butlers. Cowley, writing to Cromwell in 1538, said:
" I assure your lordship that this English Pale, except
the towns and some few of the possessioners, be so
affectionate to the Geraldines, that for kindred,
marriage, fostering, and adhering as followers, they
covet more to see a Geraldine to reign and triumph
than to see God come among them ; and if they might
see this young Girol's banner displayed — if they
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 139
should lose half their substance, they would rejoice
more at the same, than otherwise to gain great
good.
The siege of the great castle of Maynooth, which
ended in so much disaster to the Geraldines, is fully
described in the Deputy's report of the 26th March,
1535, to be found in the Carew MSS., vol. I., p. 65.
As Maynooth was the first feudal castle in Ireland
which was besieged in regular form, and battered by
cannon, the report of the siege and capture may prove
interesting : —
" On 14th March I, your Deputy, with your army^
besieged the castle of Maynooth, which Thomas
Fitzgerald so strongly fortified with men and ordnance,
' as the like hath not been seen in Ireland since any
of your most noble progenitors had first dominion in
the land.' Within the same were about 100 able men,
of whom more than sixty were gunners. On the i6th
' your ordnance was sent to the north-west side of the
dungeon^ of the same castle, which did batter the top
thereof on that wise, as their ordnance within that
part was dampned.' Then your ordnance was bent
upon the north side of the base court of the castle,
' at the north-east end whereof there was now made a
very strong and fast bulwark, well garnished with men
and ordnance; which the i8th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and
22nd days of the said month did beat the same by
night and day on that wise, that a great battery and
a large entrance was made there.' On the 23rd
being Tuesday next before Easter Day, a galiard
assault was given, and the base court entered. About
sixty of the ward of the castle were slain, and of your
Donjon or keep.
140 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
army only John Griffin, yeoman of your guard, and
six others. We next assaulted the great castle, which
yielded, wherein was the Dean of Kildare, Christopher
Paris, captain of the garrison ; Donagh O'Dogan,
master of the ordnance; Sir Simon Walshe, priest ;
and Nicholas Wafer which took the Archbishop of
Dublin, with divers other gunners and archers to the
number of 37."
Christopher Paris was the governor who betrayed
the castle ; and it is remarkable that he with the other
thirty-six prisoners whose lives were preserved by
appointment until they should be presented to the
Deputy and then to be dealt with according as the
Deputy and council thought fit were, as the Deputy
grimly writes, " put to execution as an example to
others." The Deputy showed the spirit of English
"fair play all round," by not excepting the traitor
from the doom he had planned for the betrayed.
Henceforth the English guns were masters of the situa-
tion. The Gallowglasses (Galloglach), or foreign mer-
cenaries, principally Scotch, steel-capped, mail-coated,
and armed with heavy axe and two-handed sword,
and the fighting clansmen or kerne, half-naked and
equipped with javelins, light axes and skians, who
often proved more than a match for the trained troops
of the Pale, could now be mowed down with the same
ease, if not rapidity, as the Arab hordes and Zulu
impis of modern times by British fire. Under the old
system of warfare the great feudal piles might bid
defiance to any assaulting party ; but now the ammu-
nition— almost an English monopoly — had changed
the aspect of affairs, and supplied the English
settlers with a substitute for the bow, with which
SILKEN THOMAS AND THE O'CONNORS 141
they had, in spite of many statutes, ceased to
practise.
Although the Irish were not able to obtain artillery,
they altered their mode of fighting in order to cope
with the English on more equal terms. An interest-
ing picture-plan of the battle of Bel-an-Atha-buidhe,
preserved in the library of Trinity College, represents
the infantry of O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, as harque-
busiers supported by masses of pikemen. Thegallow-
glasses have disappeared, and the cavalry are armed
precisely as the English. The latter, however, were
supported by artillery of which the Irish had none.
Occasionally the Irish were able to take the ord-
nance of the English. There is a ford in the King's
County, called Bel-atha-nabh-Fabcun, the ford mouth
of the Fabcun, from a battle fought there between the
sons of Moalroona O'Carroll, and the sons of John
O'Carroll, who were supported by the Earl of Ormond
(1532), in which the sons of Maolroona were victorious
and took from their opponents a piece of ordnance
called Fabcun.
CHAPTER X.
The Plantation of Offaly and Leix.
The capture of Maynooth caused consternation among
the O'Connors and other Irish adherents of the
Geraldines. But with their ready wit they speedily
found a way out of their difficulty. It was time that
they needed ; time for them to recover themselves ;
time for the English Deputy, Lord Leonard Grey, to
lose the advantage gained by Skeffington. Accord-
ingly, they made temporary submissions. On January
20, 1536, O'Connor, the most important of the midland
chiefs, tendered his submission, engaging on his part
to allow the Deputy and his army to pass through his
dominion without hindrance from him or his clansmen,
and even to make proper roads for their passage.^
O' Byrne of Wicklow followed suit. And thus the
Deputy was enabled to move at once against the
Desmonds of Munster. But while he was engaged
in taking the castle of Loughgyr, " a stronghold in no
less reputation in those parts than Maynooth in the
North parts," and taming the pride of the O'Briens
by capturing the castle of Carrick-OGunnel and des-
troying the splendid bridge ^ across the Shannon
called O'Brien's bridge, with a castle of hewn marble
at each end, the O'Connors were busily engaged in
repairing their losses and collecting their forces. They
vv'ere encouraged by the mutiny which arose among
the Deputy's troops on account of bad pay.
1 Carew MSS. Vol. L, p. 86.
2 An interesting account of the capture of this bridge is given in the
Carew MSS., I., 88.
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 143
But Lord Leonard Grey, one of the most vigorous
of the English Deputies, was undaunted by troubles
without and fears within. And as Chancellor Alen
wrote to Cromwell in his letter of the 12th July^ 1537
— " My lord deputy proceeded on his journey into
O'Chonour's country the Tuesday after Trinity Sunday^
entering into the same on the west side, betwixt
O'Mulmoy, McGoghegan's andO'Molaglyn's countries,
neighbours and aiders of the said O'Connors, on which
side of his country any host hath not passed with carts
heretofore, by reason of the dangerous way, being all
woods and marshes."
His objective was the castles of the O'Connor, who
was not only abandoned by his neighbours, the
O'Mulloys, McGeoghegans, O'Melaghlins and
O'Moores, but was also betrayed by his own brother,
Cathal Roe. The Four Master's sum up the disastrous
results of the campaign in the words — " O'Conor Faily,
that is Bryan the son of Cahir, was expelled from his
territory, and after many of his people had been slain,
all his castles were taken and demolished by the
Saxon Lord Justice, that is Lord Leonard, and it
was through the conspiracy and at the instigation of
O'Connor s own bivther^ Cathal Roe, these acts were
perpetrated^
This Irish chieftain, like another Judas, led the
English forces against the castle ofBragnot, "wherein
there was left a good ward, well victualled, well ord-
nanced, and well manned, environed strongly with
wood and moor." But the ill-fated garrison could
make but feeble resistance, as Cathal had a confederate
behind the walls whose treachery placed the defenders
at the mercy of the assailants. The fortress was seized
144 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
and the garrison secured, all but Cathal's man being
led out for immediate execution. Alen, who seems to
know nothing of their betrayal, states — '* his lordship
achieved the same, heading all the ward, all save three,
which were preserved to show his lordship the ways
of another castle of the said O'Connors, that in the
Irish tongue he named the castle of Dengin, that is, in
English, the castle of most assurance." The writer
proceeds to give an account of the natural defences of
this " castle of most assurance," which had become a
" doubting castle " for its gallant defenders. The
approach to it was by a broken-down causeway, laid
down over an impassible moor.
To this fortress of " Daingean " — a name cognate with
the English donjon — the traitor led the forces of the
Deputy. The erection of this old castle is recorded
by the Four Masters as having taken place in 1 546.
But they were evidently alluding to a later fortress,
built by Sir William Brabazon some years after the
events to which we are referring, when the head-
quarters of the O'Connors consisted of a huge circular
mound in the midst of a marsh and almost surrounded
by the bog of Allen ; and to make approach more
difficult, artificial obstructions had been carefully placed
in the only accessible places. But Cahir's knowledge
again proved of untold advantage to the English, and
the military were led over the quaking bog and sinking
morass up to the very vallum of Dangan.
Alen informed Cromwell that the Deputy had fag-
gots made for the repair of the causeway, which had
been broken down, and for the filling up of the great
double ditches, " so strong and so large as have not
been seen in this land heretofore." The English
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 145
troops engaged in this work were protected by two
companies, one under Martin Pellis and the other
under Mr. Seintlowe's captain. But the garrison made
a successful assault and killed several of their foes,
wounding Seintlowe's captain ; but the other captains
succeeded in entering their fortress on their very heels.
Brian fled, but his brother was rewarded for his noble
services by being made Lord of Offaly by the English
Governor.
The present town of Philipstown was built on the
site of Dangan, which changed its name in the reign
of Mary, and the trembling of the houses, when a
heavy vehicle rumbles through the streets, reminds
one that the town is built on a bog, which recalls the
doings of Cathal Roe and Martin Pellis.
In connection with the taking of Dangan, it is
interesting to read that the English lost their only one
piece of ordnance, and at once sent a message to the
Governor beseeching him " to be a mean to the King's
highness that there may be another sent thither with
speed, or his Grace's Deputy can't prevail against Irish-
men which have garrisons." This speaks rather well
for the valour of the Irish.
The brave Brian was not, however, discomfited by
the loss of his title and possessions, and he had the
apparent audacity to venture into the Pale and demand
the restoration of his rights. But his cool request was
not granted, while his brother Cahir was created
Baron of Offaly and made tenant of the Crown.
Exasperated by his bad luck, Brian once more had
recourse to arms, and getting assistance from his friends
in Connaught he marched into his own lands and de-
feated his brother, who was taken unprepared and
K
146 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
drove him out of the country. The English court were
greatly vexed at this upset to their plans. A very
strongly-worded letter was written by Lord Chancellor
Cromwell, Wolsey's friend, to Lord Grey urging him
" eftsoons to handle the matter of O'Connor's with such
dexterity as he may be hanged as a terrible example
to all Irish traitors." The writer went on to say —
" The expulsion of him was taken very well, but the
permission of him to have such a scope to work mischief
at his pleasure, no doubt he must needs be remaining
in despair of restitution, was neither wisdom nor good
precedent. Redub it, my lord, in the just punishment
of his traitorous carcass. And let his treason be a
warning to you and to all who have to do for the
King's Majesty there never to trust a traitor after, but
to use them without treaty after their demerits."
This was sound advice, and it would have been well
for the English governor had he acted upon it. But
the O'Connors were as cunning as they were warlike.
After successfully harassing the invaders' flanks, they
returned without the guidance of Cahir through the
wild tracks and dense forests of country which was
utterly unknown to them, but every inch of which was
known to him. The wily Bryan took advantage of
the heavy rains, when the Deputy was practically
powerless, to put in a plea for immunity, and was
granted a safe conduct to Dublin. Of this permission
Bryan took advantage in order to obtain an interview
with his brother Cahir, and became duly reconciled to
him, and together with him laid deep plots for the
recovery of their dominions. But their funds were
well-nigh exhausted, and they had little means of
carrying on the war with any hope of success, and
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 147
were at last reduced to make overtures to the much-
exasperated but too confiding Deputy Lord Grey.
The meeting took place at the ford of Kinnegad, the
English forces drawn up on the north side of the
stream, and the clansmen, full of fight and courage,
lining the southern bank, the boundary of the dominion
of Offaly, for which they were ready to die at a
moment's notice.
The result of the interview was eminently satisfac-
tory, according to Lord Grey's version, the said Bryan
greeting him '' with humble reverence, submitting to
the King's highness, confessing his offences, and did
utterly refuse (resign) all his title in Offaly, and in all
black rents and fees that can be had of the King's
subjects." In a word, Bryan promised to be a good
and quiet boy again, and with all due reverence to
farm the land as a tenant of the Crown, promising to
give pay out of every ploughed land " three shillings
and four pence, Irish, by the year," and was pardoned
and reinstated. Cahir, who had received the land from
the king as his tenant, naturally, even though a traitor
himself, resented this worse than " punic faith," and
withdrawing his forces retired to a strongly-fortified
house. But Bryan now proved the traitor. With
evident satisfaction, he led the English on the trail of
his brother, and at last ran him to earth in one of his
strongholds. It is said that the place was so closely
besieged that the refractory Cahir with dif^culty
escaped, and only in his shirt. But the fugitive, see-
ing the folly of further fighting, gave in with
a good grace, and was received with favour
again by Lord Grey, who thus missed the oppor-
tunity of making the O'Connors -'terrible examples
148 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
to all Irish traitors," as the king's highness
desired.
The Deput}^, however, had his hands full. The
power of the O'Neill was threatening in the north, but
was crushed by him at Belahoe (1539), and Ireland
was quiet for a year. But no sooner had Lord Grey
left the country than the O'Connors broke out afresh
(1540), and captured and destroyed Castle Jordan, in
Meath, on the borders of the Pale. A hosting is made
against them, and there is a nominal peace for some
years, during which the conciliatory St. Leger, the
Deputy, sought to come to terms with the native Irish.
A remarkable sight was witnessed when all the Anglo-
Irish nobles and the Irish chiefs, including the
O'Dempseys, O'Dunnes, O'Moores, O'Molloys, with
the O'Byrnes, O'Carroll's and O'Connors made their
submission to the Deputy (1540). This was the fourth
general submission of the Irish. The others had been
made to Henry II., John, and Richard II., respectively.
In their indentures of submission, the Irish lords,
O'Neill, O'Donnell, Rory O'Moore and others, agreed
to recognise the king as the supreme head of the
Church of England and Ireland, and as their liege
lord and king, at the same time renouncing the
authority of the Roman pontiff. And in St. Leger's
parliament at Dublin the English lords and Irish
chiefs sat side by side, accepted and confirmed the Act
of Supremacy, and passed a bill conferring on Henry
the title of King of Ireland (1541). It was a gala day
for Dublin. The city was en fete, bonfires were lit,
and salutes fired. Wine flowed freely, and prisoners
were set at liberty. In their temporary exhilaration,
the Irish chieftains threw down their caps, skeins and
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 149
girdles in acknowledgment of King Henry. O'Neill,
O'Brien and McWilliam went to England to the king
who advanced them to the degree of earls and granted
them several counties by Letters Patent. But the
Brehon Laws prevailed over nearly all the land.
Connaught, Ulster and Munster had not been yet re-
duced to shireland, and though Munster was divided
into counties, no justice of assize dare execute his
commission in them.
The Irish chieftains seem, however, to show a sur-
prising docility and loyalty. In 1546 the Earls of
Tyrone, Desmond and Thomond, with the O'Carroll,
O'Connor, O'MuUoy and Fitzpatrick, sent a Latin
letter to the king congratulating him on the peaceful
state of the country ; stating that no man in Ireland,
were he as old as Nestor, has seen the country in a
more peaceable condition, and promising to strive to
" answer to right and law as exactly as the others who
from their cradles and earliest infancy have been well
educated in the same." ^
But we find the O'Connors disturbing that peace,
which seems to have been like that which precedes
the storm, by raiding Kildare, Clane and Carbury with
the O' Kelly s, whose lands, then called Caellen, are
now included in the county of Kildare. In retaliation
the English invaded Offaly. Thereupon Bryan, with
the O' Moore's of Leix, burnt down the town and
monastery of Athy (Ath-brodain — the bloody ford),
which was then one of the keys of the marches of
Kildare. The Lord Justice then proclaimed the
O'Connors traitors, and sent letters to their allies to
leave them and be pardoned. This they did, and
^ State Papers, Ireland. Vol II,, 3, 562.
I50 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
O'Connor, left alone, fled to Connaught, where he was
attacked and deprived of a great quantity of his sup-
plies by some of the Irish who were friendly to the
English. In the meantime, Sir William Brabazon had
overrun all Offaly, and erected a castle at Dangan,
the name of which was afterwards changed to Philips-
town, in honour of Queen Mary's consort. While the
English Lord Justice was securing his country, Bryan
O'Connor was trying to levy forces to attack him. And
feeling himself sufficiently strong to do this, the next
year he crossed the Shannon with his clans, but on his
march to Leinster they melted away, evidently alarmed
by the fact that none of their ancient allies had rallied
to the banner of the O'Connors. Bryan was, therefore
forced to submit. And this time he had no mild Lord
Grey to deal with, but a resolute and determined man
who brought him to England " at the mercy of the
king." It was Sir Edward Bellingham who accom-
plished this feat, with 600 horse and 400 foot, and who,
according to Sir John Davis, was " the first Deputy
who, from the time of Edward III. to Edward VI.
extended the borders of the English Pale by beating
and breaking the O'Moores and O'Connors and by
building the forts of Offaly and Leix." The Book of
Howth gives him the following good character : —
" After him Sir Edward Bellinghame, a good man, a
very good payer of all men, and never took anything
but that he paid for ; and in his time Afale (Offaly)
and Lexe was won and a strong fort was built in every
of them ; and after being sent for into England there
died. This man had cesses worse than Selingere;
but for his own horses wholly was kept in his own
stables, and paid for all he took and was a true-dealing
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 151
man. He could not have bide the cry of the poor.
He never in his time took anything of any man, but
that he truly paid for ; he wore ever his harness, and
so did all those who he liked for." Of his military
capacity, his enemy, Alen, writes — " My Lord Deputy
is the best man of war that ever I saw n Ireland,
having since his coming hither, done more service to
the king than was done — after the repressing of the
Geraldines — in all the king's father's lifetime, notwith-
standing all his charges." It was no disgrace to the
O'Connor to be subdued by this honest and brusque
officer, who is reported to have said to the man he
committed to prison — " Content thyself, for I will do
no worse to thee than I will do to the best of the
Council, if he displease me."
It would have been well for Ireland if his officers
and the Irish Council had carried out the plan of
winning the Irish '' by sober ways, politic drifts, and
amiable persuasions of law and reason," but feeling
their impotence, while without a police force, to grasp
with the situation, they were compelled to have
recourse to sterner measures of plantation. Accordingly
English settlers were planted in Leix and Offaly, from
which the tribes were driven, and two forts, one called
''The Governor" in Faly, ond the other "the
Protector " in Leix, were built to defend the settlers,
among whom were the Barringtons, Cosbies, Breretons,
Pigotts, Browns, Hovendens. In the instructions
given to Sir A. St. Leger, Lord Deputy 1550, and to
Sir James Croft, Lord Justice 1557, the following
passage occurs which throws light upon the situation :
" As the Counties of Offalye and Leix, lately called
O'Connor's Country and O'Moore's Country, are now
152 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
in good towardness to be wholly in our hands and
possession, and yet not in perfection, the Deputy and
Council are to take order for the full and ample pos-
session of the same countries and also for the surveying
thereof, and to let this to farm or otherwise for terms
of 21 years, allowing the farmers one or two years
rent free." To this there is an allusion in the words
of the historian regarding the Bellinghams, to wit,
that they built '' two large courts " at Maryboro' and
Philipstown, and " began to let these lands for rent
as if they were their rightful inheritance." But during
the whole of Edward's reign the fighting continued,
the Irish shooting down the settlers, and the settlers
shooting down the Irish. But in Mary's reign the
O'Connor and his ally the O' Moore, who had in the
meantime failed to secure favourable terms from the
English Court, were set free. The former firebrand
was released at the entreaty of his daughter,
Margaret. This young lady, whose natural charms
were enhanced by all the accomplishments of the age
in which she lived, courageously faced the perils of a
voyage across the Channel and a journey through
England to the Court of Queen Mary, who, in con-
sideration of her connection with the great English
family of Kildare and her religion, admitted her to an
interview. The heroic daughter pleaded her father's
cause with such eloquence that Mary, very unwisely
— from the English point of view — allowed Bryan to
return to his native land (i553)-
The inevitable consequence of O'Connor's return
was that the country was in a blaze again, and on this
occasion the O'Maddens, the O'Moores, the
O'Molloys, and the O'Carrolls assisted the O'Connors
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 153
in carrying fire and sword through Offaly and the
neighbouring districts. All the hostile septs rose like
one man, and directed their operations principally
against the Irish who were loyal to England, and the
English settlers in Offaly, which was now to be made
shireland.
Instead of granting the O'Connors better terms
than her predecessors, Queen Mary pursued their
policy. In fact while Lord L. Grey and St. Leger
had felt that the O'Connors had been treated with
great harshness, doubtless owing to their connection
with the Geraldines, and had sought to give them
better terms, the Government of Mary was responsible
for the complete extermination and plantation of the
King's and Queen's Counties, and the districts of
Offaly, Fercall, Ely and Leix, which were created
shireland by the Act of the third and fourth Philip
and Mary. In the first Act — the cruellest Act of
Confiscation ever placed on the Statute Book — the
Lord Deputy was authorized to grant to all their
Majesties' subjects, English or Irish^ estates in fee-
simple " in the countries of Leix, Slewmarge,
Offallie, Irrie and Glenmalire, which belong of right
to the King and Queen's most excellent Majesties,
of late wholly possessed by the Moores, the Connors,
the Dempseys and other rebels, and now by the in-
dustrious travaile of the Earl of Sussex, brought again
into the possession of their Majesties." By the
second Act these countries were created shires being
entitled Queen's County and King's County, with
Philipstown and Maryborough as their chief towns.
Sheriffs and other officers were appointed to complete
the work. And in 1556 a system of colonization was
154 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
introduced into the district of Leix, which was divided
between the new EngHsh settlers, i6o in number, and
the Irish natives. All the country beyond the bog
was allocated to the Moores. The head of each sept
was made responsible for the conduct of his followers,
who were to obey the laws of the realm, while the
English settlers were ordered to keep open the fords
and destroy their fastnesses, and to cause their children
to learn English, to abandon Irish customs and fos-
terage, and to build a church in every town within
three years.
In the days of King John there had been an attempt
to make twelve shires in Ireland. Henry VIII. had
divided Meath into Meath and Westmeath, but this
was practically the first creation of shireland outside
the Pale. In the making thereof Thomas, Earl of
Sussex earned his laurels for *' having broken com-
pletely the two most rebellious and powerful Irish
septs in Leinster, the Moores and O'Connors," but
the planting thereof with the new settlers sowed the
seed of an internecine struggle between the settlers
and the tribes, while the Government looked impas-
sively on at the cruel deeds wrought and endured on
either side.
One of the most terrible of the atrocities that were
perpetrated in connection with the settlement of the
midland counties took place at MuUaghmast. This
remarkable eminence, which rises to the south of
Athy, had been long associated with the fortunes and
traditions of South Leinster. Here Conn of the
Hundred Battles, marching to enforce the Leinster
tribute, was defeated by Eochy of Leinster. Here
Lewy Leeshagh of Ulster defeated the Munstermen
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 155
in two successive battles at the fords in the vici-
nity and drove them out of Leinster. Upon its
brow is found an ancient rath, circular, and made of
earth and of considerable extent and height. This
rath was an ancient fortress and residence of the
kings. Here was held in olden times the Naasteighan
or the assembly of the states, the beginning of this
word Nds is still preserved in the name Naas.
Upon the summit of the rath were sixteen
conical mounds, in which the elders sat, while
all around them lay the pillar-stones and other
emblems of Sun-worship. One of these called
Gobhlan is about seven feet high. With re-
gard to this ancient Hill of Carmen, the tradition
was that it should be one day the scene of
a terrible conflict between the English and the Irish,
and that the mill-race hard by would run red with the
blood of the slain for twenty-four hours. To a con-
ference on this historic hill the Irish chiefs and
principal men of the inhabitants of the new counties
were summoned. Suspecting nothing, the O'Connors,
O'Carrolls, O'Moores, O'Molloys, O'Dempseys and
O'Dunnes came in large numbers on New Year's Day,
1577. • It is said that but one returned.
Foreseeing the troubles that might arise in con-
nection with the plantation of Leix and Offaly an Act
was passed by the Government of Philip and Mary
authorising the Land Commissioners of those days to
declare the land of any turbulent chief shireland,
which meant that it would be governed according to
English law, and that the chief had no longer any
authority, but was himself intimidated by the erection
of a gaol in his ancient "town " or district, and that
156 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
kis Irish dress and customs might lead him to a closer
acquaintance with the inside thereof.
The O'Connors found it hard to raise their heads
after this cruel and cold-blooded massacre. But again
the hostile chieftains owed the restoration of their
lives and lands to the good offices of a woman, the
ladies of the fighting clans showing as much superiority
in the arts of peace and piety as their husbands did
in the art of war. For Lady Mary O'Connor pro-
tected the young earl, last scion of the Kildare family,
in the forest wilds of Offaly, and Elizabeth was ulti-
mately induced to restore the titles and lands of this
ancient family to him.
Some years afterwards (1583) occurred a strange
event in the annals of the O'Connor sept, which is
related by Cox in his Hibernia Atiglicana, and which
recalls the scenes of single combat which was so fre-
quent in the highland clans of Scotland. It was a
dispute between two of the O'Connors. Conor
MacCormack O'Connor stated that Teige MacGill-
patrick O'Connor had treacherously and foully mur-
dered some of his followers. Teige, it would appear,
belonged to the O'Connors who were ranged on the
side of England in the stormy times of the sixteenth
century, and had been only too glad to wreak
vengeance on the Irish O'Connors for their exter-
mination of his relations. And when accused by
Conor before the English Court he challenged his
opponent to decide the dispute b}^ mortal combat.
The challenge was accepted, and the next day was
appointed for the contest. When the hour for the
fray was come, the two combatants were accom-
modated with seats at the opposite ends of the inner
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 157
caurt of Dublin Castle. Sir Henry Wallop and Adam
Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin (Lords Justices) were
the judges, and there was a large sprinkling of the
military element present, attracted by the remarkable
character of the proceedings. The pleadings were
then made and the oath administered to the litigants,
each of whom maintained the justice of his quarrel.
Fenton, the Secretary, and some attendants then
approached the combatants and searched them to see
if they carried the skian or dagger. They were then
armed with sword and target — the weapons chosen by
Teige. At the sound of the trumpet the combatants
dashed into the lists and began the fray which was to
prove fatal to one or both. Teige soon showed his
superiority. He was a greater master of his weapon
and was stronger and quicker, while his opponent
recklessly exposed himself. Three times Teige's sword
penetrated his body, and at last, exasperated by his
wounds, Connor threw aside his weapons and rushed
like a tiger at Teige, and closing with him sought to
strangle him. But he was weakened by loss of blood
and could not retain his grip, and then Teige struck
him to the ground, and having cut off his head, laid
the ghastly offering before Sir Henry Wallop and
Archbishop Adam Loftus, the Lords Justices, who
must have witnessed with horror this terrible combat,
to which the Irish often resorted in settlement of
disputed claims.
In 1597 we find the O'Connors again in the field.
There is a pass in Westmeath, a dangerous defile
through a wood, now called Tyrrellspass, from a vic-
tory Tyrrell and the O'Connor won over the English
there. This Tyrrell was a dashing captain of cavalry
158 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
in O'Neill's army, then fighting Elizabeth in the North.
He had been sent by his general with a small body of
men to create a diversion and to prevent the Anglo-
Irish of the midlands from joining the army that was
marching north against him. In this Tyrrell was
successful, for a strong force mustered in Mullingar
under Baron Trimleston with a view to join Lord
Burgh, the Deputy, turned their attention to Tyrrell's
little force. The latter was now joined by O'Connor
Faily, a warrior of great bravery and skill, and a plan
of campaign was formed which was eventually crowned
with complete success. Tyrrell posted half his forces
under O'Connor in the hollow of the road to the rear,
and with the rest prepared to receive the attack, which
was not long delayed. He then retreated slowly, and
the English forces following impetuously rushed into
the ambuscade. The O'Connor and his men leaping
out of their hiding places attacked the enemy, who
were then surrounded and almost annihilated. One
man, it is said, escaped to Mullingar. The O'Connor
himself displayed prodigies of valour, and his hand,
it is said, was so swollen from the use of his sword
that the weapon had to be filed through before it could
be released.
Tyrrell then entered the English part of Offaly and
made " great preys, slaughter, taking of towns and of
people, of plunder and of booty." He then marched
south to meet Mountjoy at Kinsale, and to be defeated
with his master.
In 1599 the ill-fated Essex entered Ireland with a
great army. He marched through Leinster into
Munster, the O'Connors hanging on his flanks. And
on his return he was again assailed by this indomitable
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX 159
sept and others ; and completely out of patience
despatched force after force against him. And with
that unthinking obstinacy which persists in adopting
the same hard and fast methods of warfare that have
ever proved unavailing in a struggle of this nature he
sent detachment after detachment of heavy cavalry
into bogs and glens and mountain passes, where they
were at the mercy of the foe. And thus the flower
of the English host found a grave in the bogs and
woods of Offaly. Sir Henry Harrington with 3,000
men, were defeated so frequently by the O'Connors,
O'Moores and O'Tooles that the earl decimated his
brave but badly led soldiers for their cowardice, but
really for his own folly, pour encoiirager les aiitres.
Such an action, unsoldierlike and brutal, was in keeping
with much of his strange conduct.
The last we see of this famous sept is in a hot
encounter with the English of Meath and the Con-
naught men under Owen O'Connor. The latter were
suddenly attacked, as they were plundering a small
town, Giolla Bindhe, in Cluain-ni-Murrois, near Geas-
hill, and not expecting opposition were taken unawares.
It was, indeed, a case of a hundred flying at the rebuke
of one, for it would appear that the Calvach, the heir
of Offaly, had only a few men at his heels when he
came upon the spoilers. An incident is said to have
occurred at this juncture which shows that the Irish
grasp of a humourous situation was then, as now racy
of the soil. As the Calvach rode into the town where
the kerne of Connaught were busy with their plunder,
an hotel proprietor, who had borrowed a cauldron
from him, ran up and pointing to one of the spoilers
who was carrying off a bronze cauldron on his back.
i6o THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
said, " There is your cauldron, you can have it now,
kerne and all." *- I accept it," said the Calvach, and
taking aim with a large stone he hurled it at the man,
and the stone struck the bronze with such a crash
that the Connaughtmen thought they were surrounded
and fled in confusion. But the Calvach was at their
heels and smote them hip and thigh with a great
slaughter between Giolla Bindhe and Cluain-Aine in
Crioch-na-gedoch in Westmeath. The night came to
the rescue of the vanquished, and the victors returned
with the chief religious emblem of Connaught, the
Buacach Phatraig or mitre of Patrick, which had
always been kept at Elphin until that ill-fated expe-
dition of Owen O'Connor. The last warlike action
recorded of the clan is the invasion of the English
Offaly and the burning down of many of the castles
of the English, in revenge for which the Lord Justice
went down to Offaly in August of 1600, as the Four
Masters say, " with many harrows, great iron rakes
and a great deal of scythes and sickles, and cut down
and destroyed the crops of the country, ripe and
unripe." After this cruel action the fighting clan
disappears as a clan from history, although many
distinguished men^ including the late Judge O'Connor
Morris of Gortnamona, in recent times, represent them
worthily. And individuals now and then emerge
from the obscurity that has lowered upon their house,
evincing the military genius and ability of the warrior
clan, which have not been diminished by untoward
circumstances or unkind fortune. Not the least among
them was Arthur O'Connor, the friend of Grattan
and Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
It has been observed that the Irish annalists devoted
PLANTATION OF OFFALY AND LEIX i6i
themselves almost completely to " feats of broil and
battle," and bestowed but little attention upon the
social and literary progress of their nation. This was
due to the unhappy divisions of Ireland. The annalist
confined himself to the glories and triumphs of his
own tribe, reserving his spleen and wrath for their
enemies, Irish and English. The Book of Leinster,
for instance, depreciates the men of Connaught and
Munster, while it magnifies the deeds of the Leinster-
men. One grows wearied of these blood-stained
annals which give as distorted a view of Irish humanity
as the Records of Newgate would give of English
morality.
It is, therefore, a pleasant change to read of the
gentler pursuit of learning and law, which were en-
couraged by those very chieftains who are paraded as
very monsters by the admiring historians of their
tribe. In the Annals of Duald MacFirbis, cited by
Dr. O'Donovan, there is an account of two entertain-
ments given by Margaret, the wife of O'Conor Faily
in 145 1 to the learned men of Ireland. At Killeigh
" there gathered the number of 2,700 persons, as it
was recorded in a roll for that purpose, and that
account was made thus : — The chief kindred of each
family of the learned Irish was written in the roll by
O'Connor's chief judge, and his adherents and kins-
men, so that the aforesaid number of 2,700 was listed
in that Roll with the arts of poetry, music and anti-
quity. Every one as he was paid was written in that
Roll for fear of mistake, and was set down to eat
afterwards. The hostess, Margaret, was in the gallery
of the great church of Da Sinchall (the two Sinchalls,
Sean-Sinchell and Sinchell-og), clad in cloth of gold,
L
i62 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
her dearest friends about her, her clergy and judges
too. Her husband, Calvach O'Connor, himself on
horseback, by the church's outward side, to the end
that all things might be done orderly and each one
served successively. And first of all she gave two
chalices of gold as offerings that day on the altar to
God Almighty, and she also caused to nurse or foster
two young orphans. A second feast given on the
festival of the Assumption is described as being
" nothing inferior to the first day."
Nor is the fighting clan without its religious
associations. Killeigh Abbey, the church of the field,
founded in the sixth century by S. Sincheall, was and
is the favourite resting-place of all who boast the
O'Connor name. The ruins of the original building
are still to be seen. The roof is of rough hewn stones.
Here the most warlike of the O'Connors, O'Connor
Faily, established a monastery for Franciscan Friars.
Here Murrough O'Connor, the bravest of the race,
who had taken the Sheriff of Meath prisoner, was
interred after gaining " the victory over the world and
the devil." Here Margaret, " the best woman of her
time in Ireland, for it was she who gave two general
entertainments of hospitality in the one year to the
poor " {Four Masters) was buried. Here Fionngula,
daughter of Calvach O'Connor, the most beautiful of
the O'Connors, took the veil and lived for forty-nine
years ''in a chaste, honourable, pious and devout
manner." Here in the cemetery of the church of the
field that nestles under the long ridge, repose all that
is mortal of the princes and princesses of the fighting
clan of the O'Connors of Offaly.
CHAPTER XI.
The Rise of the O'Carrolls and O'Mulloys.
The O'Carrolls of Ely are another of the fighting
clans who made the subjugation of Ireland an extremely
difHcult task to the English Lord Deputies and
settlers. Though they never succeeded in bagging a
Viceroy and keeping him prisoner until a ransom and
hostage were given for him, they displayed a certain
amount of natural taste for warfare that was extremely
disagreeable to their more peaceably disposed neigh-
bours. It is true that we do not find them carrying
on long and organised campaigns like their friends
in Offaly, but sallying from their strong castles — their
" small piles of little importance, the chiefest whereof
is Limwaddon," as Dimmock describes them in his
Treatise on Ireland (1600), they were able to inflict
many a crushing blow on their adversaries.
Ely O' Carroll, to call the clan by its proper name,
derived its descent and domain from Eile or Ely,
seventh in line from Cian or Kian, a son of the famous
Oliol OUum, King of Mumha, now known as Munster,
for Moonster (Mumhan-stadr), the place of Mumha.
According to O'h-Uidhrin Ely O'Carroll was divided
into eight tuatha or districts, over which O'Cearbhaill
or O'Carroll was the ruling chief. The territory of
Ely is almost coterminous with that part of the King's
County which belongs to the diocese of Killaloe, and
includes the baronies of Clonlisk and Ballybritt.
Ikerrin and Elyogarty, in Tipperary, were detatched
1 64 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
from it at an early date and given to " Ormond."
Birr, the ancient Biorra, or plain of water, the
Umbilicus Hiberniae, or centre of Ireland, according
to Giraldus Cambrensis, seems to have been the head-
quarters of the tribe when they first emerge into history.
According to the poets, they were a hospitable, fierce,
and yellow-haired race, to whom the neighbouring
tribes were compelled to pay tribute.
Speaking of Ossory, the poet O'Dugan writes : —
There are three tribes who possess it,
The Clan Carroll who are free from opposition,
They are as fierce as leopards under their leaders.
The war-cry of the clan was Showeth-aboe, which
must have been at one time heard far and wide. For
we find in the Book of Rights that the king of Caiseal
(Cashel) paid tribute to the king of Eile :—
Eight steeds to the King of Eile of the gold,
Eight shields, eight swords are due,
Eight drinking horns, to be used at the feast,
Eight coats of mail in the day of bravery.
And again : —
The stipend of the King of Eile, of the gold,
From the King of Caiseal, of the banquets,
Six shields and six bright swords.
Six bondsmen, six bondswomen.
Up to the slopes of Sliabh Bladhma (Slieve Bloom)
the O'CarroUs of Ely held sway, and were found to
furnish fewer forces than the other kings to the Ard-ri.
There was gold in the country in these days, the gold
from which crosses and chalices, torques and chains,
bracelets and bodkins, were fashioned, and with which
the warrior's sword was inlaid and the lady's mantle
inwoven. And in gold Ely was rich, for the
RISE OF O'CARROLLS AND CrMULLOYS 165
O'Carroll was " King of Eileof the Gold." The chief
was also rich in cattle and herds, that found pasture
on the green slopes of the hills and in the well-watered
plains of Ely.
A bard, O'PIeerin, who died in 1420, thus alludes to
this princely race : —
Lords to whom great men submit
Are the O'Carrolls, of the plains of Birr,
Princes of Eile, as far as tall Slieve Bloom,
The most hospitable land in Erin.
Eight districts and eight chiefs are ruled
By the Prince of Ely, of the land of herds ;
Valiant in enforcing the tributes
Are the troops of the yellow-ringletted hair.
It appears that Ely came into notice at a very early
period. The story is given inKeating'sandComerford's
histories of Ireland. In 212, Fergus of the black
teeth reigned in Ireland, when the king of Ulster gave
a great feast at Magh Breagh — the Plain of the Wolf
— to which Cormac MacArt was invited. But the
guest falling under the displeasure of the king, the
cruel but curious order was given that Cormac's fair
beard — of which the possessor was proud — should be
burnt. Cormac immediately applied to Thady, who
was then Chief of Ely, for assistance, and overthrew
the king of Ulster in a great battle, and wiped out
the disgrace of his burnt beard in the blood of his foes.
To Birr, the seat of the pagan worship of Fen, which
is preserved in the name Seffin, and the chief strong-
hold of Ely O'Carroll, came the good S. Brendan,
S. Columkill's friend (See Adamnan's Li/e of
Coluinkill)^ whose prophetic gift, long life, and pro-
found piety formed the theme of many a legend, to
spread the light of Christianity and to found a monas-
tery, about 550 A.D. S. Brendan, according to the
1 66 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Four Masters, died in 571 (Nov. 29), in the same
year that a battle was fought at Tola, a plain between
Saigher and Clonfert Molua, where the men of Ossory
and Ely were defeated by Fiachna. To his founda-
tion Colgan refers in the words — " Birra monasterium
in Elia in Mumonia." Some of these abbots of Birr
were men of renown. S. Killian, a successor of S,
Brendan, died in 690, Seanchan, Abbot of Birr
and Killoughy, died in 791, and MacRiagail, who
died in 820, wrote a copy of the Gospels known as the
Codex Rusworthianus, and was kept at Stowe. The
work concludes with the words — " Ouicunque legerit et
intelligerit istam narrationem, oret pro MacReguil
scriptore." The Rei'mn Hibei'nicarujn Scriptores
Veteres gives an account of this document. Ely
O'CarroU had also its native saint, Albaeus, the second
patron of Munster after Patrick, who was born here
and said to have been exposed in his youth, as the
legend reporteth, in a place afterwards called Rath.
The same authority states that in 1284 '' Geoffrey St.
Leger, the second founder of the cathedral church of
St. Canice, recovered by combat — the combatants I do
not find recorded — the manor of Seirkeiran in Ely,
now in O'Carroll's country," while Kiaran, or Pyran,
born in Ossory, was the first bishop of Ossory and
lived at Seir Kieran. Hanmer writes of Albanus,
another of these primitive saints — '' He founded Cluain
Findglaise and Cluan Conbruno, and went into Ely
where he baptised and converted unto the faith,
thousands." Birr was not only the meeting place of
the waters, as some explain the name, from the meet-
ing of the Brosna and the Camcor, '' the river called
the Abhan Chara," w^hich flows from the Slieve Bloom
RISE OF OXARROLLS AND O'MULLOYS 167
and forms the boundary of Meath — it was also the
meeting place of the kings of Ireland and Munster
and Cashel. The Four Masters mention that a meet-
ing took place here in 825 between Conchobhar, son
of Donchadh, king of Ireland, and Feidhlimidh, son
of Crimhthann, king of Munster, and the Annals of
Ulster give 826 as date for '* a kingly parlee at Byre
between Felim and Connor."
Hither the '' foreigners of the Boyne," as the Four
Masters describe the Danes, penetrated in 841, plun-
dering both Birr and Saighar. Of this inroad of des-
truction, Ely O' Carroll has a perpetual record in the
name Oxmantown, or the town of the Ostmen.
Through here, in 852, Felim of Cashel, the archbishop
king of the south, passed in his terrible expedition to
Tara, plundering and slaying all the Irish that came
in his way, instead of forming a coalition against the
invaders. Here the tribe of the O'Connors, the Ui
Failge, were defeated and many of them slain, with
Cinaeth Cruach, in 949. From here a strong detach-
ment of the O'Carrolls marched to join the standard
of Bryan Boroihme, and helped to hurl the ruthless
invaders — the Vikings of the North — into the sea on
the strands of Clontarf In 1121 the town lay under
the fear and distress of a terrible siege. For Torlogh,
the son of Roderick O'Connor, king of Ireland, had
collected a great army and '' encamped near Birr for
some months," and then, to the infinite relief of the
O'Carrolls, he was forced by the heavy snows and
bitter cold of winter to withdraw to Connaught again.
The history of the O'Carrolls begins with a sacrilege
— the murder of a king, O'Hendersgeol of Cathluighe
i n South Munster, who was stabbed as he was leaving
i68 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the church, and fell dead on the threshold (1154).
And twenty years afterwards, Rughry O'CarroU, king
of Ely, was slain by his own brother on an island
(Inis Clothrann) in the Shannon, and in 1170, the
Annals of Boyle says the Synod of Birr was held here.
It is the story of a red-haired and red-handed race
that we are now reading. But when w^e remem-
ber the fierce times in which they lived, and the wild
and ungovernable passions of a people who had never
experienced the blessing of peace, who had but half
learnt the lessons of Christianity, and who had imbibed
from their parents that inborn love of fighting which
has now been happily turned by English influence
into more useful but not less vigorous channels, we may
not judge them harshly, though w^e may congratulate
ourselves on the fact that their day is over, and their
dread is past.
The English invasion should have had at any rate
one good effect in making the isolated tribes and prin-
cipalities of Ireland forget their private feuds for a
moment and combine to some extent against their
common foe. But the clansmen of the different tribes
would not amalgamate ; they had been so long accus-
tomed to hate and fear, to distrust and dislike their
neighbours. And so they presented an easier task to
the Anglo-Normans than they had doubtless antici-
pated. It was in consequence of their dissension that
the English king was able to portion out their
dominions to his favourite and trusted knights, and
the latter were not afraid to occupy that part of the
land that fell to their share.
It seems that Henry II., without consulting the
wishes of the O'Carrolls, had made over the estates of
RISE OF aCARROLLS AND O'MULLOYS 169
Ely O'CarroU to Theobald Fitzwalter, the ancestor of
the powerful Butlers of Ormond, and that the
treacherous John, with an equal disregard for his
father's promises, sold the same lots to Walter
de Braosa for a large sum of money, so that Fitzwalter
had to purchase Braosa's claim before he could take
possession. This he at once proceeded to do, having
granted part of Birr to Hugh de Hose or Hussy.
The O'Carroll opposed his entrance into his dominions,
but suffered defeat, losing his own life in the battle.
The English invaders were now greatly aided in their
conquest of Ely by the unpatriotic action of Moriertagh
MacBryen of the Mountain (an Slieve, i.e. Tuatharra),
a Tipperary neighbour, who seized the opportunity
while the O'Carrolls had their hands full, to overrun
their country (1207). According to the Annals of
Clonmacnoise, this highland chief besieged the castle
of Byrre, and at last burnt the whole town. He then
attacked the Castle of Kinnetty and the castle of
Lothra, and broke them down and destroyed them,
thus leaving the country of his neighbours completely
exposed to the incursions of Fitzwalter and his
men.
Kinnetty, as we have already seen, was one of the
frontier fortresses of the O'Carroll sept. The tower,
built on a spur of the mountain range of Slieve Bloom,
served to protect the O'Carroll's country from the in-
vasions of the foreign Danes and the native Irish. That
castle, with others belonging to the sept, now fell into
the hands of the English, who profited by O'Bryen's
campaign by occupying and restoring the castles of
Durrow, Birr and Kinnetty (121 3). The English
having already erected a castle at Athlone, the central
170 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
plain of Ireland was now dominated by their spearsmen,
archers and cavalry.
But the O'Carrolls were not conquered. Far from
it, for when defeated in the field they had strongholds
to flee into, even those at Clonlisk, Dunkerrin, Emil,
and Lemivanane, or Leap. Behind the stout walls
and deep trenches of these fortresses they were safe
until gunpowder was brought to bear upon them.
Then only did they yield.
At Clonlisk, the meadow of the fort, two miles from
Shinrone, the O'Carrolls "of the redddened spears"
were able to inflict a defeat upon a force of English
who were marching to surprise them from the south,
but who found in Shinrone (the seat of the Seal) a
veritable ambush of fierce and nimble warriors. Intes-
tine feuds from this time forth helped to decimate the
ranks of the O'Carrolls. The men of Ossory, on the
one side, and the fierce kerne from Arran on the other,
proved relentless and persistent foes. The Lord of
Ely was slain in battle on his own lands as he was
leading his men against the Ossorians, and James,
Earl of Arran, took Teige O'Carroll, his own brother-
in-law, prisoner, and kept him confined for eight years.
But Teige escaped from his dungeon, to be afterwards
slain by Lord Deputy Scrope (1407).
But amongst the fiery chieftains of this race some
few were found who had more pious aspirations than
to live the life of Ishmael, with their hand against
every man and every man's hand against them. For,
as we found an O'Connor withdrawn from the scenes
of blood to the studies of the cloister, so we find Thady
O'Carroll desirous of retiring into a more obscure but
pious existence. But his clansmen and the lords of
RISE OF O'CARROLLS AND O'MULLOYS 171
Eastern Munster prevailed upon him to remain as he
was, so he compromised matters by paying a visit to
the Pope (1396), and afterwards was received at the
Court of King Richard II., who was preparing an
expedition to Ireland. But he seems to have been
the solitary member of the reigning family that evinced
such a desire, for those who went before him and those
who came after him were conspicuous for the Berserker
rage which has ever distinguished the Celtic race.
The O'Mulloys of Fearcall.
The O'CarroU had warlike neighbours who never
refused to give him the pleasure of a fray. Right up
to the town of Birr in Ely ran the ancient territory of
the O'Maolmualdhor O'Mulloy, called Fearcall, which
may mean either the man of the wood or the man of
the churches. The district is very bare and bleak and
contains the ancient battlefield of Moylena, according
to O' Flaherty's Ogygia, but there are traces of plan-
tations known as the " Great Wood of Fearcall," near
Broughall Castle at Frankford, one of the principal
seats of the O'Mulloys, and at Dowris, near Whigs-
borough, or Cloneen, as it used to be called. Eglish,
the name of the barony, which corresponds with
ecclesia or church, supports the other derivation,
which also receives some colour from the number of
ancient churches in the district. Among these are
Drumcullin, Kilcormack, Killyon, Ralyon, and Eglish.
The O'Mulloy, who was variously styled king, prince,
and chief, ruled this district, which comprised the
baronies of Eglish and Ballyboy, lay in the ancient
Kingdom of Meath, and between the O'Connors on
one side and the O'Carrolls on the other. He was of
172 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the race of the Southern Hy Niall. O'Dugan thus
describes him : —
The Prince of t'earcall of the ancient swords
Is O'Molloy of the free-born name ;
P'uU power was granted to him,
And he held his own country uncontrolled.
The O'MuUoys appear early and frequently in the
Annals of the Four Masters. In 1175, O'Maolmuaidh
(O'MuUoy), lord of " Ferkale," was treacherously
slain by Roderick, son of Conor MacCoghlan. In
1382 Fergal Roe, son of MacGeoghegan, chief of
Kinel Fiacha was treacherously slain by the people of
Fearcall, when Fergal O'Mulloy, and the son of
Theobald " were the persons who attacked him, and
Myler Maintin was he who struck him." This may
have been in revenge for the murder of Cian O' Carroll,
the " illustrious heir," by Hugh O'Mulloy, who struck
him with a javelin in 1380. In 1410 Torlogh and
Teige, the sons of O'Mulloy, were slain by the people
of Glenmalire, showing that they had quarrels with
their neighbours on every side. In 1454 there was a
dispute for the chieftaincy, which caused a schism in
the sept for some time, for Theobald O'Mulloy and
the grandson of Cosnavach O'Mulloy were appointed
chiefs ''in opposition to each other." And seven
years afterwards Theobald, " lord of the half of
Fearcall, was killed by O'MuUoy of the wood." In
1533 the lord of Fearcall was treacherously slain by
his brother Peregrine and his nephew Art in the plain
of Lynally, and his brother Cahir " was nominated
the O'Mulloy." In 1582 Donald, the son of Theobald
O'Mulloy, was slain, and ''his death was the less
lamented on account of his having endeavoured to
THE O'CARROLLS AND O'MULLOYS 173
supplant and expel his father, in order that he might
assume his place." In 1585 Conall O'Mulloy, the
lord of Fearcall, attended Queen Elizabeth's Parliament
in Dublin, and in this reign the princes of this house
were appointed royal standard bearers of Leinster.
Cox, in his account of Lord Deputy Russell's progress
in Ulster in 1595, states that O'Mulloy carried the
English standard on one day and O'Hanlon of Armagh
on the next. In virtue of the office they carried as
arms a mounted knight with the British standard in
his hand and the family arms on his shield. And on
his death in 1599 his son Calvach took his place " by
the power of the Queen," although there were
gentlemen of his lineage who objected to and opposed
him " according to the law of the Irish concerning that
title." It would seem that certain of his family were
wise in their generation, but their politics seemed
rather uncertain. However, their lands and people
suffered during the Elizabeth wars, although they
seem to have but once fought with the O'Connors and
other septs against the queen's forces. For the
district was invaded by Lord Leonard Grey in 1537,
who, according to Mageoghan, took the castles of
Eglish, Birr and Modereny and, according to the
Annals of Boyle, the castles of Modrymore and
Broghill also. In 1580 Lord Grey, with 150 cavalry
and six companies of infantry, reinforcements from
England, overran the territories of Offaly, Fearcall,
Kinelyagh and Ely. Camden and Mageoghan inform
us that he pacified the O'Carroll of Ely but caused
O'Mulloy, lord of Fearcall, to be put to death " as a
seditious person." In 1600 the Four Masters relate
that Hugh O'Neill, lord of Tyrone, marched into
174 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Fearcall, where he remained nine days and the people
submitted to him ; and that he then " proceeded over
the Sliebh Bloom mountains." On this occasion
O'Neill sent three bands to plunder and harry the
territory of El}^ O'Carroll, and he then marched south
to Roscrea. The next year, 1601, he returned, and
with several other chiefs who " were expeditiously
conveyed across the Shannon at Shannon Harbour ;
from thence they proceeded to Delvin MacCoghlan,
to Fearcall, to the borders of Slieve Bloom, and into
Ikerrin." By these raids Fearcall was greatly cut up,
but the O'Mulloys continued to hold their own and to
retain their property for a considerable time, one estate,
Clonbella, being still in the hands of an O'Mulloy.
The chief burial place of the sept was Kilcormack
Monastery, which was found for White Friars by
Odo O'Mulloy. Mr. Archdall informs us that as well
as being the place for the interment of the chief, this
monastery was the scene of an inhuman murder, for
in 1525 Charles O'Mulloy and his followers drew Hugh
and Constantine O'Mulloy out of the church and put
them to death " before the gate of the convent." In
1 548 it and Saighir Chiarain, Seir Keiran, were burned
down by the English and O'Carroll. The principal
fortresses of this sept were Broghill Castle near
Frankford, Caislean-na-Hegailse or Eglish Castle,
Kiltubrid Castle^ Rathmackilduffe, the Castle of
Dowris, Le Porte Castle and Ballindown. Broghill
Castle, still a splendidly preserved keep, with high
walls in places, ten feet thick, was the chief residence
of the O'Mulloy. In 1537 it was, however, surprised
by the Lord Deputy. In the great hall lavish
hospitality was given to all, the O'Mulloys being said to
THE O'CARROLLS AND O'MULLOYS ijs
have entertained 900 men at the close of the sixteenth
century. The property passed into the hands of the
Marquis of Lansdowne through Sir William Petty.
It is now owned by Mr. Christopher Banon, D.L.,
whose ancestor, Frank MacAuley, of the tribe men-
tioned by O'Dugan —
The Fair MacAuley rules over
The entire of the ports of Calrie.
gave its name to Frankford. Kiltubrid Castle stood
once on an island and was known as Island Castle,
but the land has now been completely drained. It is
not far from Kinnetty and Drumcullen. Shane
O'Mnlloy lived at the Castle of Dowris in 1607, and
Le Porte Castle stood on Lough Coura, since drained,
near the present Whigsborough. These castles were
on the frontiers of Fearcall facing Delvin (Dealbna
Eathra), the county of the MacCoghlans, while
Ballindown, ''the town of the Dun or Earthen Fort,"
is nearer to Birr.
This glimpse of the O'Carrolls neighbours may
prove of interest. To return to this class, we find
that the good and pious Thady O' Carroll, who wished
to retire to the seclusion of a monastery from the
world and lawless life of his time, was succeeded by
a warlike O' Carroll, who was speedily involved in a
war with the Butlers of Ormonde, who eventually
entered Ely and burnt down two of his fortresses
(1432). Fifteen years, enlivened by the usual border
feuds between the Irish and their English neighbours
passed, and another enemy of an even more pernicious
nature appeared, sparing neither high nor low, priest
nor peasant, Norman nor Celt. Hussey, Baron of
Galtrim, and 700 priests are said to have died of the
176 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
plague (1447). The O'Carrolls, however, seem to
have come well out of it, for in 1460 we find them in
power, and, according to Macgeoghegan, compelling
the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary to pay forty
liv'res yearly. Great pressure, however, was brought to
bear upon the Lord Deputy, the Earl of Kildare, by the
English of the Pale to release them from the tyranny
of the O'Carrolls, and he besieged them in the castle
of Lemivanane, or Banan's leap, which he failed to
take, and on his return for reinforcements fell sick at
Athy and died 1514. So the Four Masters say. But
his son, Gerald, assumed the reigns of government
and marched against this castle, now known as Leap
Castle, and took it, although " it was doubtful," say
the Four Masters, " if there was in that time a castle
better fortified and defended than that, until it was
demolished on its guards." This happened in 15 16.
This fortress is as formidable as it is forbidding, being
of great strength and of equal antiquity. It is stiW
in splendid preservation and full of interesting points for
the antiquarian, oubliettes, crenelles, machicolations,
etc. A capital view of the surrounding country may
be had from its grim parapets. Right opposite
is a splendid specimen of a rath, with a raised
platform of earth for the chieftain's residence, with
which the castle, which is said to have been built by
the Danes, was connected by a subterranean passage.
Mr. and Mrs. Darby — the latter of whom is widely
known under her nom de plume of Andrew Merry —
take much pride in their fine old baronial residence,
which has been for the last three centuries in the
possession of the Darby family, which was connected
by marriage with the O'Carrolls.
CHAPTER XII.
The Fall of the O'Carrolls.
We now come to an unpleasant episode in the history
of the sept, a family dispute, which did more to weaken
its power than any foreign oppression could have
done. To cut a long story short, when John, son of
Maolroona O'Carroll, died in 1485, the chieftainship
of the sept was claimed by another O'Carroll, who
was elected on account of his splendid qualities. This
was the famous Maolroona O'Carroll, who, according
to the Four Masters^ was " the most distinguished
man of his tribe for valour, prosperity, and excellence,
to whom poets, travellers, ecclesiastics, and literary
men were most thankful, and who gave, and enter-
tained, and bestowed more presents than any other
who lived of his lineage." But though devoted to
literature, the patronage of all that was excellent, and
the dispenser of princely hospitality, this, the best of
the O'Carrolls, was, like the British Prince Alfred,
equally proficient in the arts of war. For, while he
was '' the anvil of knowledge, and the golden pillar of
the Elyans," he was also '' the supporting mainstay of
all persons, the rightful victorious rudder of his race ;
the powerful young warrior in the march of tribes ;
the active triumphant champion of Munster." This
Maolroona O'Carroll was as popular among the
English as he was among his own people. For he wooed
and won no less a bride than the Lady Fitzgerald,
daughter of the Earl of Kildare. Her sister had been
M
178 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
previously wedded to Bryan O'Connor of Offaly. But
Maolroona died, unlike most of the O'Connors, how-
ever, in his own castle on S. Matthew's Day (1532),
after he had heard of the defeat of the Earl of Ormond
by his sons, who took many horses, and some ordnance
at a ford which was called Bel-atha-na-bh Fabcun, in
memory of the achievement. His eldest son, Fer-
ganainm, or the '' man without a name," was chosen
to succeed him. But the sons of John O'Carroll, the
former chief, who had distressed the closing years of
Maolroona by conspiring with his foes against him, at
once took the field against Ferganainm, and, seizing
the Castle of Birr, continued to harass the supporters
of Ferganainm, who entreated the Lord Deputy, the
Earl of Kildare, his uncle, to come to his aid. This
the latter did without delay. And taking on his way
the Castle of Killurin, in Geashill, the Castle of Eglish,
and the Castle of Ballindooney, or Ballindown, where
the sons of John had fortified themselves, he proceeded
to storm the Castle of Birr. During the attempt on
this fortress, which he assailed from the Monastery of
Birr, the Earl was wounded in his side by a bullet,
but still persisted in the attack until the place was
stormed. The earl was recalled shortly afterwards to
England to give an account of his stewardship, and to
answer among other things why he, a person of
English descent, had, in spite of the statute of Kil-
kenny, allowed his daughters to marry the Milesian
Irish, and was committed to the Tower by Henry VHI.
There he died shortly afterwards (1535).
In the meantime he was succeeded by Lord Grey,
whose presence was almost immediately required in
the country of the O'Connors and O'Carrolls. For
THE FALL OF THE O'CARROLLS 179
" Silken Thomas" had commenced his absurd rebellion,
and induced the only too willing clans to rally round
the standard of revolt. Down to Offaly and Ely came
the new Deputy, and took the castles of Eglish, Birr,
Modereny, Modrymore, and Broghill, but not before
much destruction had been wrought by Ferganainm.
However, this proved an instance of the soft answer
turning away wrath, for while O'Connor was driven
from his land, and was followed by the unrelenting
hatred and unremitting severity of Lord Grey, the
O' Carroll succeeded in conciliating him and throwing
dust in his eyes when he tendered his submission to
him in Dublin Castle. It was one of the charges made
against this unfortunate nobleman that he had over-
looked the outrages that Ferganainm had committed,
and was too partial to the Geraldines (1541). It would
have been better for these Viceroys had they and
their daughters seen less of the fascinating O'Carrolls.
However, the King himself, Henry VII L, in 1539
concluded a treaty ^ with Ferganainm on the conditions
that the latter was to pay tribute for Ely O' Carroll, to
furnish forces to the king, and to give the deputy
passage through his dominions whenever it was neces-
sary. Poor Ferganainm, however, did not long survive
this new settlement of the question, for the unhappy
man, now infirm and blind, was treacherously killed in
his own castle of Clonlisk (Clonlis) by Teige, his
kinsman, the son of Donagh, and the grandson of
John O'Carroll, and by one of the O'MuUoys. The
Four Masters give a full record of it. It was a
1 A copy of this treaty — concordia facta inter Regem et O'Karroll
Capitaneum Patriae Ely O'Karroll — is preserved in Sir W. Betham's
Iriih Antiquarian Researches.
i8o THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
terrible scene, the assassins seemed to have got a
secret entrance into the castle and attacked the blind
prince unawares, but he defended himself with such
vigour while some of his attendants, most of
them unarmed, hurried to his assistance, and pre-
sented their defenceless bodies between the
miscreants and their king, and thus obtained
the glory of dying with their master (1541).
Now ensued a decade of fighting with varying
fortune, but out of which the O'Carrolls seem to have
emerged the best. Trusting more to their natural
wit than to the force of their arms, they secured
favourable terms from their invaders, who saw that it
would be wiser to treat the sept at all events with more
apparent consideration than they had done. But it is
questionable if there was any sincerity on either side.
In 1548 it is said that Thady O'Carroll (Thady being
the same as Teige or Tadg), made an arrangement
with Brabazon by which he engaged himself to supply
the king with forces, and that shortly afterwards he
surrendered his dominion of Ely O'Carroll to King
Edward VI., who restored it to him with the title of
Lord Baron of Ely. But this statement is not well
authenticated. It is queried by Ware. It is certain,
however, that this Thadeus was able to secure posses-
sion of Birr and to inflict a defeat on the English
settlers. But Thadeus did not live long to reap the
fruits of the victory, which were not, however, fated
to be lasting. For he was slain by Cahir
O'Carroll, who became Baron of Ely, and who
perished as he deserved by the sword of
another rival, William O'Carroll. The seed of
dissension, sown by John O'Carroll and fostered
THE FALL OF THE O'CARROLLS i8i
by the English, did indeed produce a harvest of
blood in 1554.
This William wisely tendered his submission to the
English, and was acknowledged by them as the
successor to the title of Lord of Ely, and having
promised to fight for the King and Queen of England,
and to send Queen Mary a number of horse and foot,
was made Governor of Ely by Royal Patent (1557).
This was all the wily William desired. The moment
the Deputy's back was turned he began the old game
of plundering the English settlements, in spite of the
fact that the Deputy, before he had withdrawn, had
taken hostages from William and his confederates for
their good behaviour, which did not last long. For
we find that after his return, the Earl of Essex was
obliged to send an expedition through Fearcall to
punish the O'Mulloys, and advancing with great
rapidity to Lemyvanane Castle, now called Leap, he
took William by surprise, and the latter only escaped
by the swiftness of his horse. Teige O'CarroU was
then put in the Governorship in his place by the
English Deputy, who saw the advantage of promoting
division in the ranks of the O'Carrolls, which was not
hard to do among so quarrelsome a sept. But William
was not done with, for he returned in an unexpected
manner to his favourite stronghold, Caislean-an-
Leime, the Castle of the Leap, and after slaying
the English garrison, was once more master of Lemy-
vanane. His triumph, however, was but short-lived, for
he was afterwards severely defeated by the soldiers of
Essex, and had to draw in his horns. It was at this
time that the districts of Lei;x and Offaly were made
into the shires of King's County and Queen's County ;
1 82 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Ely, which was omitted at the time, being included
in King's County afterwards. Dangan then became
known as Philipstown, Maryborough being created
the capital of Queen's County.
Under the 8th of March, 1576, we have an interest-
ing document drawn up by '' Betwyxte Sir Henry
Sidney, Knight, Lord Deputy of Ireland, for and on
behalf of the Queenes's Most Excellent Majestie, of
those parts, and Sir William O'Kerroll, of Lemyvanan,
in the countrie called Elye O'Kerroll, and now to be
parcell of the King's County." This was a deed of
surrender, a full copy of which is given in O' Donovan's
translation of the Foiir Masters. Its chief interest
nowadays arises from the list of thirty-six landed
proprietors who held the land of Ballybritt and Clon-
lisk, under the O'Carrolls. The evident object of
O'Carroll in delivering his possessions to the
" Queene's most honourable Court of Chauncerie of
Ireland " was to secure them by letters patent, one of
the conditions of the surrender, for his illegitimate
sons, of whom he had four — John O'Kerroll, Teige
O'Kerroll, Calloghe O'Kerroll, and Donoghe O'Ker-
roll. And this he managed to do, and so excluded
the legitimate heir, his own brother, Donoghe Keoghe
O'Kerroll, from the succession.
But the Irish septs of Ely, Leix, Offaly, and
Fearcall still continued in a restless and unpacified
condition. While giving fair words to the English
Deputy they ceased not to prey upon each other, and
to plunder the property of the settlers, like the moss-
trooping Scots of border fame. One of these ex-
peditions (1579) against Birr terminated fatally. For
we read that Conal Buighe, the son of Gillpatrick,
TtlE FALL OF THE O'CARROLLS 183
the son of Pierce O' Moore, was slain at Birr in the
territory of Ely, and the historian's comment is that
" it was better that he was killed, for it was to plunder
the town that he had come.'' But while the Irish
wolves were quarrelling in their dens, the English
bloodhounds were on their trail, tracking them to their
lairs. Lord Grey, reinforced by cavalry and infantry
from England, was upon them, and '' pacified " the
O'Carrolls and the O'Mulloys. On his return the
Deputy released a hostage, William, the son of
Ferganainm, whose tragical death has been described.
But the unfortunate man was not fated to enjoy the
liberty of his native air, for as he was returning he
was attacked by some of his enemies of the O'Connor
clan who were displeased at his release, and who
'' slew him at once and left his body exposed to the
claws of wolves and ravens." But the murdered man's,
son, John, was chosen to be the Lord of Ely. He,
too, did not enjoy his honours long. For Teige's
perfidious example was doomed to be perpetuated.
John O'Carroll was stabbed the very next year, 1582,
" with abominable and unprofitable treachery " by
Mulroona, the son of Teige Caoch, the son of Fer-
ganainm. The assassin then became a victim of
assassination, falling three months afterwards by the
hand of a brother of the man he murdered — Calvagh
O' Carroll.
This Calvagh O' Carroll was then nominated chief of
the clan, which position he managed to hold for fifteen
years. He is described by the Four Masters as " a
warlike, defending man, and a strong arm against his
English and Irish neighbours ; he was a knight by
title and honour, by authority of his sovereign." In
1 84 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the Parliament convened by Sir John Perrott at Dublin
(1585), this Calvagh O'Carroll, with his neighbours,
the O'MuUoy, O' Madden, and MacCoghlan of Delvin,
was a distinguished figure. But there is an Indelible
blot of shame on his escutcheon. For It appears that
Calvagh had hired some of the MacMahons from
Monaghan to help him in the plundering expeditions,
but when their time for payment came he had no
funds to settle with them. With unspeakable trucu-
lence he conceived the Idea of " removing " them.
Accordingly in his castle of Lemyvanane, where
O'Banan made his immortal leap, he made a great
feast in honour of his mercenaries. But at the end of
the banquet, when the revellers were overcome with
the pleasures of the table, the orders were given to
close the doors, and the perfidious host, violating all
the traditions of hospitality, which were often of more
weight in the eyes of the Celt than the laws of God,
caused his armed retainers to fall upon the defenceless
men who had fought his battles, and slew them to a
man.
For this act of unparalleled atrocity, Calvagh paid
the penalty. The O'Neills from the north invaded his
land, harrying and carrying all before them, and in
June of the following year his life was taken " by some
inferior gentlemen of the O'CarroUs and O'Meaghers."
Such was the melancholy end of a great warrior, whose
crimes prevent us from regarding him as a hero. When
we compare the callousness and perfidy of such men —
the prevalent type of the Celt at the close of the six-
teenth century — with the gallantry and chivalry of
their English contemporaries, of whom Sir Philip
Sydney is an example, we cannot but lament the fact
THE FALL OF THE O'CARROLLS 185
that his life of constant rapine and murder tended to
foster all that was low and cunning, and banished all
that was generous and noble from the heart of the
Celtic chief There was nothing to encourage but
much to impede the spirit of chivalry in the associations
of the Irish chieftain, who knew himself to be safe in
his stronghold from the representatives of the law he
had so basely broken. It was well for Ireland that a
new race was coming to infuse higher ideas and better
customs into the wild but warm blood of the Irish
clans, who when trained and disciplined have proved
on many a field and in many a clime that they are in-
ferior to no race in the game of war and the arts of
peace.
In the last year of the century that had witnessed
so many distressing scenes and doughty deeds, we
find that the O'Carrolls, who were then posing as
dutiful and loyal, though, we need hardly add, little
trusted servants of the Crown, were ordered to invade
the O'Mulloys of Fearcall, who were at this time living
in the heated atmosphere of family feuds and open
sedition. This order the O'Carrolls must have been
only too willing to obey. Sir Charles O'Carroll
appears in command of 100 men in the muster roll of
the Lord Deputy Mountjoy, dated 26th March, 1600,
and Captain Mulrooney O'Carroll as commanding 100
foot in O'Carroll's Country in the same and the two
following years.
The seventeenth century saw many changes in this
powerful sept. When the so-called " undertakers "
were planted in Ely, O'Carroll, to the disgust of the
dispossessed, but to the advantage of our poor distress-
ful country, those of the O'Carrolls who fell in with
iS6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the existing order of things fared well, while those
who did not for a time defied the English from behind
their stout fortresses of Emill, Dunkerrin, or Frankfort,
Lemvanane, and Clonlisk.
On an inquisition held in the year 1612 Teige
O' Carroll was found to possess some ninety acres, but
Lord Thurles, on behalf of his father, the Earl of
Ormond, declared that the said Teige had surrendered
his claim to the earl, and held the property as the
latter's tenant. The O' Carroll afterwards disputed
this statement when he found that Sir Laurence
Parsons had been given possession of Birr, but after
petitioning the king three times the decision was given
against him. Thus ends the connection of the
O'Carrolls with their old town, which now, thanks to
the genius, enterprise, and wealth of Sir Laurence and
his worthy successors, was transformed from being the
headquarters of a lawless predatory chieftain, and the
scene of murders and rapine, into the centre of culture,
civilization, and religion — as it once was — in the mid-
land counties of Ireland. Birr rapidly improved. Its
streets were lighted, its poor were employed and pro-
tected, glass was manufactured in the Bigo factory,
chimneys were erected on the houses, and single
women were forbidden, under pain of being exposed
for three days in the stocks, to sell liquor. The
" Black Castle " of Birr — a forbidding ruin that stood
prominently above the river's bank, presents a signi-
ficant contrast with the handsome baronial residence
which has taken its place, and which has stood as
many sieges and seen as much fighting under its valiant
defenders — whose history in places reads like a
romance — as any other castle in the land. In 1639
THE FALL OF THE O'CARROLLS 187
we read of a search made by Sir William Parsons, of
Birr, and Captain William Paisley, Provost-Marshal
of Munster, in the castle of Clonlisk, where O' Carroll
was suspected of plotting a conspiracy. The bird was
flown, but the searchers found a quantity of muskets
and pikes and a secret chamber, which had been used
in former times for coining money. Another strong-
hold of the once powerful sept was Dunkerrm, the
fortress of the ash tree, which afterwards passed mto
the hands of Thomas Francks, who obtained by grant
the lands of Coologe and Castleroan, and became
known as Frankfort Castle.
But the last memoirs of the O'Carrolls are associated
with Emmell, a castle that had long been In their
possession, and one that, like the others, except Leap
castle, which, strange to say, is now held partly in the
O'Carroll name and right, was taken from them. The
Irish Rebellion of 1641 hastened the climax. Then
the O'Carrolls, Mulloys, Kennedys, and the neigh-
bouring septs rose and burnt down the castles of the
settlers, and in many cases murdered the inmates.
This cruelty was not, however, universal. Many in-
stances of gallantry and courtesy extended by the
rebels to the English, notably the polite treatment
which Lady Anne Parsons received from Colonel
Moore, who besieged Parsonstown, relieve that story
of some of Its repellent and melancholy features. The
tide of fortune turned, and Emmell was granted by
Cromwell to Captain Rose, and its owner had to take
up his abode in Cullenwaine, where he died in 1681.
He was succeeded by his son. Long Anthony Carroll,
who made a supreme but ineffectual effort to retrieve
the fortunes of his ancient house. However, he was
1 88 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
able to recover Emmell. For Captain Rose, not feel-
ing at all safe among such determined and dangerous
neighbours, who had been the loyal supporters of the
House of Stuart, to which he and his late general
officer, the Lord Protector, had proved traitors, was
glad to dispose of it by deed of sale to Long Anthony
in 1676. Anthony now became regarded as the lord
of Ely, and endeavoured, with some success, to unite
the scattered fragments of his sept. However, the
revolution of 1688 burst upon the land, fanning into
flame the now dormant elements of party strife and
hatred, and Anthony, like all the Irish chieftains, re-
mained loyal to the king. Their loyalty cost them
dear. Anthony armed his men, and took part in a
great many encounters under the brilliant leadership
of Sarsfield. In one of his expeditions he seized
Nenagh, which was then in the hands of a party who
had ever been opposed to the Stuarts. And although
the castle was dismantled and its w^alls had not been
rebuilt since Ireton demolished them in 165 1, he
thought of making it his headquarters for his operations
in Ormond. However, he was forced to abandon it
on the approach of General Leveson against him, so
he evacuated the town after burning it down to pre-
vent it being of use to the Orange party. There is no
doubt that his movement was accelerated by the re-
port that a strong body of William's men were march-
ing against Emmell. Those men never reached their
destination. The gallant Anthony was before them.
And as the Dutchmen were endeavouring to pick their
way through an Irish bog at Barna, the Place of the
Gap, the Celts flew upon them like wolves upon their
prey, and the scene of the slaughter that ensued bears
THE FALL OF THE OXARROLLS 189
the name of " the Bloody Togher," or pass through
the bog.
But when King James fled, Anthony showed his
wisdom by returning to his estates and submitting to
the new condition of things, which he could not alter,
with a good grace. Finally, the lavish hospitality of
Anthony's great grandson, Richard O'Carroll, who
was compelled to mortgage his castle and estates,
extinguished the flickering glories of this illustrious
house.
CHAPTER XIJI.
The Defence of the Pale.
Sir John Davis alleges as reasons why the country
was not subdued until his time (1603). (i) "The
faint prosecution of the war " and (2) '' the looseness
of the civil government." When discussing the
superficial nature of Henry H's. conquest he points
out that Henry very unwisely gave the Irish lords the
style of " kings." The word " Rex " is preserved in
Hoveden's record of his agreement with Roderick
O'Connor. And from the twelfth year of King John
to the thirty-sixth year of Edward HI. no royal
army came from England to make an end of the war,
but during that period " the chief governors of the
realm, at first called Custodes Hiberniae and afterwards
Lords Justices," maintained an ill-paid and ill-
governed army in the country. The English subjects
in Ireland were continually cessed and taxed to main-
tain this army because little treasure came out of
England to pay the soldiers' wages. Consequently
in all the Pipe-Rolls of Henry III., Edward I.,
Edward II., and Edward III., there is the entry " In
Thesauro nihil '' (nothing in the treasury) because the
officers of the state and army had exhausted the little
there was."
We do not imply that the officers or their men were
well paid according to modern standards, in those
days. Sir John Davis informs us that 6s. 8d. a day
was the pay drawn by Lord Lionel as general, but
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 191
this was doubled when he was created Duke of
Clarence. Then he was allowed for eight knights 2s.
each, per diem; for sixty-four esquires is. each; for
368 mounted archers from Lancashire, 6d. each ; and
for twenty-three archers from Wales, 2d. each, per
diem. When Lord Lientenant 1 361-1369, James, Earl
of Ormonde, Lord Justice in 1364 was allowed for
twenty armed " hobblers," as Irish horsemen who
served on " hobbies " were called, 6d. each, and for
twenty unarmed ''hobblers" 46. each, per diem. In
the time of Sir William Windsor (Lord Lieutenant
1369) the charge of the kingdom amounted only to
;^ 1 1,200, while the revenue, according to Sir John
Davis, did not rise to ^10,000 any year during the
reign of Edward III. In the year 1442 the revenue
only amounted to £4,Syy 2s. 4d. And in the same
year — one of perfect peace — the Executive and
military establishment in Ireland cost only
;^7,982 6s. 8d. The force itself consisted of 9 officers
and 532 men, who were maintained at an annual cost
of ;!^7,I75 13s. 4d. — a small force and outlay com-
pared with the Dublin police and the cost of their
maintenance, and utterly inadequate for the purpose
of protecting life and property in the Pale, had they
not been supported by the levies of the Pale and the
Earl of Ossory. The force was divided in this way : Sir
Anthony St. Leger's retinue, 2 officers and 100 horse-
men (;^i,36o 1 6s. per an.) ; Mr. R. St. Leger's retinue,
2 officers and 100 horsemen at the same cost ; Mr.
Brereton's retinue, 2 officers and 150 archers; the
Master of Ordnance, 3 officers and 100 hackbutteers.
The Treasurer of this empty treasury had an escort
of 40 horsemen ; the Knight Marshal had i officer
192 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
and 32 horsemen ; and the Clerk of the Check, 10
horsemen. Lord Leonard Grey had introduced in
1535 the plan at first effectual, of sending flying
columns supported by artillery, through the country,
which checked the lawless here and there for a moment,
but, of course, led to no permanent settlement of the
countr}^ But when we consider the slenderness of
the means at his disposal, the paucity of his troops
and the smallness of his treasury we wonder at the
success of his enterprises and the extent of his opera-
tions. In 1536 when he invaded Munster, which was
in revolt, he had an army of 1,023 men, 323 of whom
were Irish levies ! In 1560 the Irish revenues of
Elizabeth were ;^8,35i, £s^^ o^ ^^^s came from the
lands of Leix and Offaly, while the outlay was £g,400,
a deficit of ii" 1,049. The expenditure was as follows :
— ;{^i,500 for the Lord Lieutenant; an escoit of 50
horsemen, £700; 100 horsemen to attend him,
;;^i,400; 200 footmen to do the same, ;^2,6oo ; 100
kerne, ;^6oo ; 100 footmen for the fort of Offaly,
;f 1,300 ; 100 footmen for the fort of Leix, i^ 1,300, a
horseman being paid ;^I4 per an. ; and footmen ^^13.
Ireland was, financially in those times a dead loss to
England. During the first 16 years of Elizabeth's
reign the loss in hard cash in those days was
£37^>779 — 3- s^^ which would have established a
magnificent exhibition in London or Dublin, or
founded a noble university.
The principal source of the King's income in
Ireland was the customs, which were chiefly raised
on hides, rents of land and various subsidies. Queen
Elizabeth, for instance, had certain " bonaught for
gallowglass upon Irishmen living on the border of the
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 193
Pale" to the value of ^4,000 (Carevv MS. I., p. 300).
These sums were rather uncertain, and the difficulty
of collecting them was so great that in Henry VI's.
reign the Duke of York on his appointment as Lord
Lieutenant was to have all the King's revenues there
and 4,000 marks yearly for England. When the
Brotherhood of St. George was instituted by 14.
Edward IV. a subsidy of poundage on all exports
and imports — the hides and goods of freemen of
Dublin and Drogheda excepted — was granted to pay
the standing army of 200 men, of whom 120 were
mounted archers, at 6d. per diem ; 40 were horsemen
at 5d., and the rest at a lower rate. Sir Edv^ard
Bellingham., Lord Justice in Edward VI's. reign, the
first Deputy to extend the borders of the Pale by
breaking the power of the Moores and O'Connors
and building the forts of Leix and Offaly, had but
600 horse and 400 foot, whose pay .mounted to
£1,216 per month. In those years, a'^. -vxy rate, the
Irish taxes and revenues were spent on Irish concerns
— if the upkeep of the army may be considered so —
and were miserably deficient for the purpose. The
slenderness of the means placed at their disposal is an
excuse for the almost proverbial rapacity of the lieu-
tenant and their deputies at which the English
Government winked. We are strongly reminded of
the publicani under the Roman Empire, whose extor-
tions were connived at, provided they did not commit
the Empire in any way, by the story of the doings of
the English officials almost from their first appearance
in the land.
Of this rapacity, a few instances will now be given
Henry Marleburrough informs us in his Chronicle
N
194 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
that Lord Thomas of Lancaster, the Lord Lieutenant,
landed at CarHngford in 1406, and was received in
DubHn by the Earl of Kildare, one of the Lord
Justices, whom he had arrested and detained in the
Castle of Dublin till " he had paid three hundred
markes fine." The unhappy Earl, whose colleague,
strange to say, was James, Earl of Ormonde, in the
meantime " lost all his goods, being spoiled and
rifled by the Lord Lieutenant and his servants."
Shortly after this action, which reminds one of the
exploits of the modern bushranger, this royal gover-
nor was wounded in a skirmish at Kilmainham, and
returned to England, leaving as deputy in his place
the warlike William de Botiller, Prior of Kilmainham.
The same chronicler also states that in 141 9, on the
festival of Mary Magdalene, the Lord Lieutenant,
John Talbot, went over to England, leaving as his
deputy Richard Talbot, the Archbishop of Dublin,
and carrying with him the curses of many " because
hee being runne much in debt for victuall and divers
other things would pay for little or nothing." In the
Parliament that met in November, 1420, " were
reckoned up the debts of the Lord John Talbot, which
amounted to a great summe." Spenser comments on
the rapacity of the governor and his official. He
requests " that no offices should.be sold by the Lord
Deputy for money, nor no protections brought for
reward, nor no beeves taken for captaincies of coun-
ties, nor no shares of bishoprics, nor no selling of
licences for exportation of prohibited goods and
specially corn and flesh." A^contemporary of Spenser,
Richard Boyle, a young gentleman who first landed
at Dublin in 1588 with but twenty-seven pounds and
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 195
three shillings in his pocket and two changes of
raiment, a rapier, dagger and taffety doublet was
made Earl of Cork in 1620, and left vast estates
behind him. However, he may have been a fortunate
speculator, as many of the English immigrants were
more lucky and more provident than the old inhabi-
tants of the county. It was to him that Sir Walter
Raleigh sold his house and estates in Youghal in
order to provide himself with ships to attack the
Spaniards, and it was he who quarrelled with
Laud and Strafford over the removal of a family
monument from the east wall of the choir, where the
altar used to be, of S. Patrick's Cathedral.
To go back some centuries, we find Sir Ralph
Ufford, Lord Deputy in 1344, acting in the most
unknightly manner towards the Earl of Desmond, of
whose castles at Castleisland and Iniskisty in Kerry
he got possession by treachery, and hanged the
Knights, Sir Eustace De La Poer, Sir William Grant,
and Sir John Cottrel. Camden gives a vivid picture
of this ruffian, " at whose death the common sort truly
and heartily praised the only Son of God." *' Being
dead, he was folded fast in a sheet in a coffin of lead
to be interred in England and with his treasure not
worthy to be bestowed with such holy relics " — the
historian sarcastically remarks — " his countess (the
widow of the Earl of Ulster) in horrible grief of heart
went over to England ; and she, who at her coming
had entered the city of Dublin so gloriously with the
King's arms and ensigns, attended by a numerous
guard of soldiers, and a long train in her procession
through the streets ; for a short period living in royal
state as Queen of Ireland, was now, at her going forth
196 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
from the same city obliged to pass stealthily through
a postern gate of the castle to avoid the clamour of
the common people calling upon her to discharge her
debts." How that noble but rather dishonest dame
must have sadly meditated upon the unstability of
human greatness as she departed in disguise
from Dublin on the 2nd of May, 1346, taking
her money for greater security in her husband's
coffin !
Another Lord Deputy, Sir Stephen Scrope, who
held office in 1401 and again in 1406, was converted
by his wife who was not " a miserable sott " like
Lady Ufford, from being a character like Ufford into
a gentleman and a popular governor to boot.
Campion tells us that his wife, hearing of his miscon-
duct and extortion in Ireland, declared she would in
no wise assent to live in his company there unless he
swore a solemn oath on the Bible that willingly he
should wrong no Christian creature in the land, but
that duly and truly he should see payment made for
all expenses. This oath was faithfully kept by the
Deputy who *' recovered a good opinion, schooled his
caters, enriched the country, continued a plentifull
house, remissions of great fines, pardons of lands and
lives he granted so charitably and discreetly that his
name was never uttered among them, without many
blessings and prayers." Lady Scrope's example
illustrates both the influence of a good wife and also
the misconduct of which a Lord Deputy could be
guilty with impunity in those days of misrule in the
English Pale.
When speaking of these distinguished Governors of
Ireland we may not omit the name of Prince John,
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 197
Lord of Ireland (1185). Campion gives an interesting
account of the loyal and handsome manner in which
the boy-governor, who was accompanied on this
occasion by the celebrated Giraldus Cambrensis, was
received by the Kings of Thomond, Desmond and
Connaught who " put themselves in the bravest
manner they could to meete him," while they sent on
before them to Waterford Irish gentlemen with rich
presents. " And these men as they are very kind
hearted where they list to show obedience made unto
the Childe their Lord the most joy and gladnesse that
might be, and though rudely yet lovingly and after
the custom of their country, offered to kisse him, with
such familiarity, as they used towards their Princes at
home." But the result was contrary to their expecta-
tions. For, instead of receiving a gracious acknow-
ledgment of their homage, they were thrust rudely
back by two of the Norman Guard," " pick thankes,"
who " shooke and tore the clownes by the glibs and
beards unmannerly and churlishly thrust them out of
the presence." This was a grievous insult which is
even more graphically described in Hanmer's account,
which is taken from Giraldus Cambrensis, who was
present. He says, " one made courtesie, another
kneeled, some tooke him by the hand, other some
offer to kisse him. The new gallants and Normans
set them at nought, laughed at their mantles and
trooses (trousers), derided their glibbes and long
beards, one takes a sticke and pats the Irishman on
the pate, another halls the mantle and pricks him
behinde with a pinne, some have their glibbes and
long beards pulled and departing have flappes on the
lippes, thumps on their neckes, and the doores clapt
ifjS THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
on their heeles with divers other abuses and undis-
ereet entertainment."
Camden's description of the dress affected by the
better class of Irishmen at the time may help to
explain the indignation of the Irish chieftains at such
treatment : " The hair of their head they wear long,
and nothing set they greater store by than the glibbes
or tresse of their haires ; and to have the same plucked
or twitched they take it for a contumelious indignitee.
They use linen shirts, and these, verilie, exceeding
large, with wide sleeves, and hanging side down to the
very knees, which (shirts) they wont to stain with
saffron. Little jackets they have of woollen, and those
very short ; breeches most plain and tight ; over these
they cast their mantles, with a drape fringed purple,
and the same daintly set out with sundrie colours,
within which they lappe themselves in the night and
sweetly sleep on the very ground. Such also do the
women cast over the side garment that they wear
down to the foot."
Greatly incensed by the indignities they had
suffered at the hands of this Norman Rehoboam and
his satellites whom Giraldus describes as ''great
talkers, boasters and swearers, very proud, and
despisers of others, very forward to claim position,
profit and honour, but very backward to undertake
any dangerous service," the Irish envoys went back
to the kings " turned them home with great oathes
and leagues " from " a Boy peevish and insolent,
governed by a sort of flatterers, younglings and
prowlers." " The entertainment," however, was not
altogether one-sided. For John and the " beardlesse
boys " were promptly ordered back into England and
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 199
censured by Henry II., who appointed John de Courcy
" the strong man " of the kingdom to quell the storm
their silly behaviour had raised. John did not forget
the lesson. For when he returned in 12 10 — the year
after the notable massacre of the Dublin holiday party
in Cullenswood by the O'Birnes and O'Tooles of
Wicklow on Black Monday — he treated the Irish
chiefs with greater respect, reformed the coinage and
appointed twelve English shires with sheriffs to rule
over them, and when he went to war with France in
121 3 was supported by an Irish regiment of 300 men.
In the 1 2th year of his reign both the Benches and
the Exchequer Court were erected (Sir John Davis),
and there are great keeps at Nenagh, Limerick, and
Roscrea, said to have been erected in his reign.
As a general rule the lieutenants and their deputies
did nothing, according to the English Chronicler, but
extort money from the English and Irish aristocracy,
"make great preyes upon the neighbouring Irish,"
receive grants from Parliament, run heavily into debt,
and carry home with them the curses of the plundered
merchants of Dublin. In consequence of these extor-
tions the colonists had begun to leave the country in
great numbers, but in 1353 they were checked for a
time by a royal proclamation forbidding the departure
of any ecclesiastic, noble or able-bodied man from the
shores of Ireland. In 1356 a royal order was issued
that no one born in Ireland should thenceforth hold a
command in any of the King's castles or towns. A
brilliant scheme was this for the encouragement of the
English colonists ! They were compelled by law to
remain in Ireland in order to defend the territory of
the Ensflish Kin"; from the inroads of the Irish and
200 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
to provide the English-born deputy with a suitable
field for his embezzlements ; and at the same time
because of their having been born in Ireland they
were treated as ** Irish rebels," unfit to hold the
smallest office or post in connexion with the Saxon
Government. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at
that many Anglo-Norman houses withdrew from their
allegiance to England, adopted Irish ideas, and pro-
moted the policy of " Ireland for the Irish." Among
those who had been converted to the new policy by
the injustice and tyranny of the English officials were
the Le Poers, one of whom had been infamously
hanged by Sir Ralph Ufford, the Lord Justice (1344),
the St. Aubyns, De Roches, and the De Cantillons.
In 1 361 Lionel Duke of Clarence came over as Lord
Lieutenant to save the situation, but only made
matters worse than before. Opening his campaign
with a well-equipped English army he made no efforts
to conciliate those who were still wavering between
their allegiance to the King of England and their love
for their native land, but estranged them still more by
his proclamation forbidding any English colonist to
join his army or approach his camp. But his cam-
paign was not crowned with many laurels. And he
withdrew to England when he found the subjugation
of Ireland a hopeless task. On his return in 1 367 he
held the parliament in Kilkenny which passed the
celebrated statute by which an undisguised effort was
made to drive a permanent wedge between the still
loyal English of the Pale, the " degenerate " English
throughout the country who had been obliged by
circumstances to adopt the native customs and the
native Irish themselves. By the provisions of the
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 201
historic enactment every connexion between the
English of the Pale and the Celts, such as gossipred,
fosterage, and intermarriage, was made illegal, and
sale and barter between the two races in time of war
was denounced as felony. The wearing of Irish
garments, the use of the Irish language, the submission
to Brehon laws, by which every penalty was com-
muted to a fine, the giving ofcoyneand livery, or food
and fodder to soldiers billeted upon them, the riding
without a saddle, the keeping of '' kerns, hoblers or
idle men " by the English subjects, were strictly
prohibited. Irishmen were also debarred from enter-
ing English monasteries and Irish bards from English
lands.
The framers of this statute not only desired to
separate the English subjects from the " rebel " and
native Irish by a barrier that no man might cross ;
they also w^ished to remove all occasions of hostility
between the two nations. To this end they enacted
that on the one hand the cattle of Irish people
pastured on English lands without consent of the
owner should be impounded until compensation should
be made, but on the other hand, that cattle so
impounded should be kept safely for their owners
under heavy penalties; and that the Irish should
receive due notice of the new regulation. They also
declared that in the case of a debt the creditor,
whether English or Irish could not make the family
or tribe of the debtor responsible for the debt. For
it was a feature of the Brehon law that the whole sept
could be made liable for the eric or debt incurred by
a single member. They also ordered that " no differ-
ence of allegiance shall henceforth be made between
202 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the English born in Ireland and the English born in
England, by calling them English hobbe or Irish dog,
but that all be called by one name, the English lieges
of our lord the King." Those who persisted in calling
these names were to be imprisoned for a year and
afterwards fined.
Those regulations were strict but not harsh. Fair
play was intended for all. But the English and Irish
in Ireland were henceforth to be treated not as one
nation but as two distinct peoples. And while the
English subjects of the Pale were prohibited from all
friendly intercourse with the Irish, they were also de-
barred from every hostile encroachment, by section 26,
which ordained that if any peace or truce made by the
justices or sheriff '' between English and Irish shall
be broken by any English and thereof be attainted,
he shall be taken and put in prison until satisfaction
be made by him to those who shall be disturbed or
injured by that occasion, and he shall moreover make
fine at the King's will."
The English Government had apparently abandoned
the hope of anglicising the Irish and recovering the
degenerate English, and now directed its efforts to
check the steadily advancing de-angllcisation of the
English settlers, and to shepherd, after the hireling
fashion, the few loyal sheep in the wilderness. This
measure, a wise one for the time, had there been a
sufficient executive to support it, was followed by an
order (1368) for the return of absentee landlords under
pain of forfeiture of their lands. Had the Govern-
ment nursed its own subjects more kindly, or main-
tained them more loyally, there would have been no
need for any such edict. But owing to the indifference
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 203
of the people in England, and the injustice of the
English governors in Ireland, life in the English Pale
had become intolerable. Reduced to pauperism by
legal taxation and illegal embezzlement, depleted by
constant conscriptions, worn out by perpetual cam-
paigns, insulted and harassed by the officials who em-
ployed their temporary banishment from the English
court like the publicani of evil fame, so that '' an
officer of the king who enters very poor could in one
year heap up more wealth than men of great estates
in many," the English of the Pale were sorely tempted
either to return to England, or to join the ranks of their
countrymen who were stigmatised as '' Irish rebels."
Richard II., who is not conspicuous for aught save
magnificent conceptions, struck the nail on the head
when he wrote regarding the English who had become
de-anglicised by English misrule — " To us and to our
council it appears that the Irish rebels have rebelled
in consequence of the injustice and grievances prac-
tised towards them, for which they have been afforded
no redress ; and that if not wisely treated and given
hope of grace, they will most likely ally themselves
with our enemies."
In the meantime the Irish tribes were regaining
lost ground and assuming the aggressive. Acting in-
dependently of each other, the tribes made the work
of their subjugation a matter beyond the range of
practical politics. The various English colonists had
to cope with the tribes in their vicinity, but the Eng-
lish Government had to settle with the tribes in rota-
tion. In the course of time they were compelled to
buy off their hostility ; but before they were reduced
to such straits they made some attempt to keep them
204 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
in their place. This was by no means easy when
there was no miHtary executive or poHce to patrol the
country ; and when the forts and castles of the previous
settlers had been destroyed and the settlers themselves
dispersed. Out -of their hiding places in the bogs and
hills the O'Connors and O'Carrolls and the O'Byrnes
and O'Tooles came with great numbers and courage.
And in 1368, the very year after the Statute of Kil-
kenny had been passed, the Irish Parliament made a
strong but ineffectual appeal to King Edward III. to
help them, stating that the Irish with his other enemies
and rebels, continued to ride over the country in hos-
tile array, slaying those who opposed them, despoiling
the monasteries, churches, castles, towns, and fortresses
of the English without reverence for God or Holy
Church '' to the great shame and disherison of
His Majesty." At this juncture (1371), De Cotton,
the warlike Dean of S. Patrick's, raised a strong body
of men and marched against the O'Byrnes, who had
made a descent upon Carrick-imayne, and when
Newcastle-MacKinegan, on the Wicklow frontier, was
threatened, and none of the English officers would
undertake its defence, marched to its assistance, and
held the castle for five days with thirty- six men, for
whose keep he had pawned his own goods.
But the Government would do nothing. They not
only left the defence of the king's dominions to indi-
viduals like Dean de Cotton, and other warlike
ecclesiastics like Thomas Canley, Archbishop of Dub-
lin and Lord Justice (14 14), who defeated the O'Moores
and O'Dempseys near Kilka. " Praying in procession
with clergy and his men ... he slew one hundred
of the Irish enemies," and Richard Talbot, Archbishop
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 205
of Dublin, who, in 1419, ''being Lord Deputy made
an assault upon Scotties, and slue thirty of the Irish
neere unto Rodiston " — (Marleburrough's Chonicle),
but they attempted to violate the constitutional
liberties of the colony. In the Parliament assembled
at Kilkenny, 1374, the Lord Lieutenant, Sir William
de Windsor, announced that the king, in consequence
of the expenditure required for foreign affairs, was no
longer able to defray the expenses of maintaining
soldiers for the defence of his territory in Ireland ; and
Sir Nicholas Dagworth, on behalf of the Crown, de-
manded a contribution from the prelates, lords and
commons, there assembled, for that purpose. As they
declined, the viceroy issued writs requiring them to
elect representatives to be sent at their own expense
to England to confer upon the matter with the king.
A strong protest against the violation of their rights
and privileges was made by the clergy, nobles and
commons of the Pale, the ecclesiastics stating bluntly
— " we do not grant by any means to the represen-
tatives we have elected any power of assenting to
burthens or taxes to be imposed on us or our clergy,
to which we cannot yield by reason of our poverty and
daily expense in defe7idi7ig the land against the Irish.''
But while they were engaged in wordy warfare in
Kilkenny, the Irish ''enemies" and •' rebels " poured
like the " Harpies " of Virgilian fame upon their lands.
The Wicklow tribes, the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles,
attacked Newcastle and dismantled it, and cut off Wick-
low from the English lines. Limerick was assailed by
the O'Briens ; Youghal by the De Roches ; Art
MacMurrough Kavanagh after raiding and slaying
all over the counties of Kilkenny, Carlow, and Kildare
2o6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
was bought off by the sum of eighty marks, while
Murrough O'Brien received a hundred to withdraw
from Leinster. At this time there was the magnificent
sum of nine marks in the Irish treasury. The balance
was made up by the following subscriptions and levies
— "From the Prior of the Hospitallers, sixteen marks;
from William FitzWilliam, a horse price twenty marks ;
from Robert Lughteburgh, a horse price twenty marks ;
from John More, a bed, price thirty shillings; from
Sir Patrick and Robert de la Freyne, seven marks
and ten shillings." This list will give a fair idea of
the state to which the English colony in Ireland had
been reduced. This was the price they had to pay
for the honour of being portion of the British
dominions ; while her wealth and strength, and the
wealth and strength of England, had been squandered
by the English monarch, Edward III., in a foreign
campaign, which after thirty-five years of wonderful
success and brilliant victories ended in shame and
grief to his country and the breaking of the noblest
heart of the age — a sad frustration of the hopes which
men had of the king, of whom the quaint Chro7iicle
of Henry of Marleburrough says — " In the beginning
of whose reign there was great likelihood of good suc-
cesse to follow. For then also the Earth received
fruitfulnesse, the Ayr temperature and Sea calmnesse."
But the picture of the Pale is not altogether one of
unredeemed misery. It had its moments of relief and
also of brilliance. On many occasions the intestine
feuds of the Irish spelt safety for the English colonists.
Under the year 1260, Hanmer states that *' the Carties
placed the Divells in Desmond," where they became
so strong that for twelve years the Desmonds durst not
THE DEFENCE OF THE PALE 207
put plough in their own country. " But at length,'*
he says, "through the operation of Satan, a bane of
discord was throwen between the Carties and
O'DriscoUs, O'Donovaies, MacDonoch, MacMahonna,
MacSwines and the inhabitants of Muscrie (Mus-
kerry), in so much that by their cruell dissention, they
weakened themselves on all sides, that the Desmond
in the end overcame and overtopped them all." An
historic instance of the policy of allowing the Irish to
destroy one another occurred during the civil wars of
1278 between MacDermot de Moylargs and O'Connor
of Connaught, when the latter king was slain. The
Lord Justice (Sir Robert de Ufford) when called
to account for permitting " such shamefuU enormities
under his government,'' replied that " in policie he
thought it expedient to winke at one knave cutting off
another, and that he would save the king's coffers and
purchase peace to the land ; whereat the king smiled."
(Hanmer, p. 107.)
It is also but bare justice to Ireland to point out
that on many an occasion forces from Ireland, Norman
and native, released English troops from a difficult
position. When Henry III. took the reins of
authority into his own hand, and began to give the
world a specimen of misgovernment, he made an ex-
pedition in 1245 against David ap Llewelin, Prince of
Wales ; but was completely foiled by him, and his
army was surrounded and reduced to great straits, as
Powell, a writer cited by Hanmer, informs us. In the
meantime some ships from Ireland and Chester brought
victuals to the camp. But it was to Ireland that
Henry looked for aid. As the authority quoted WTote
— "the king all this while expected the arrival of
2o8 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Maurice Fitz Gerald (the Lord Justice) with his Irish
forces, mused with himselfe, fretted with himselfe,
the wind serving and yet said nothing ; at length the
Irish sayles are descryd, a shore they come, and
Maurice Fitz Gerald together with Phelim O'Conor
in battle array present themselves before the king."
The result was that the Welshmen were overthrown,
and the English troops, with the assistance of the Irish,
were victorious. Another time also in his Welsh wars,
being hard pressed, Henry III. sent to Ireland for
succour and did not ask in vain. Hanmer's Chronicle
(p. 378) relates this incident also.
But such moments of brightness were few and far
between. The horizon was black with gathering
clouds ; and storms continued to break forth upon the
unhappy Pale, bound hand and foot on the altar of
self-renunciation by the two lines of policy, government
by corrupt officials and "no Irish need apply." ^
1 In the Compositio realis (15 14) between the Archbishop of Dublin
and the Dean and Chapter of S. Patrick's we find the same principle
laid down — "the ancient custom of this Church is confirmed and
ratified that all Irishmen by blood and nation, and all who conform to
them in mode of life, are shut out from being members of this cathe-
dral." The same policy continued in the Church of Ireland until
Archbishop Whateley's time, all the best appointments being reserved
for Englishmen.
CHAPTER XIV.
Misrule and Oppression.
Before the Reformation both Church and people
were in an evil case. The reports of the visitations,
preserved in Theiner's monumental work, of the various
Sees in Ireland, as they became vacant from time to
time, are not pleasant reading. The famous church
of Clonmacnoise, where S. Columkille was received
with great honour by the pupils of S. Kiaran more
than 900 years before, is described in 15 15 as ''almost
ruined, unroofed, with one altar and only covered with
straw. . . . Here Mass is seldom celebrated."
The town itself is described as consisting of "scarcely
twelve cabins built of wicker work and mud, close to
which flows a river styled in the language of the in-
habitants, Sinin." In the church itself was '' the body
of an Irish saint, of whose name the writer is ignorant.'
So perished the glory of the Divinity School of the
Church of Ireland in the west, and the name of its
illustrious founder, S. Kiaran Macantsoir, or MacEntire,
the son of the carpenter, generally known as S. Kiaran
the younger. The see is said to be worth '' thirty
ducats, at which sum it is assessed in the Books of
the Camera. The proceeds are derived from barley
and oats." This would be about £iS> i^ the ducats
were gold. In the Inquisitio, 38, Henry VIII. (1547),
the prebend of Wicklow is described as worth " com-
munibus annis xlvil, xiiis, ivd." This was quite a
large income, as the archdeaconry of Glendalough
had been valued at 10 marks {£y) in the Pope's
O
2IO THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
valuation of 1306, but at 100 marks (£70) in the king's
visitation of 161 5. But the ordinary income was " ni/,''
the usual entries being " nil propt. guerr.," " nil quia
vasta." The report of the town (civitas) of Ardagh,
to which see Henry VIII., appointed Roger O'Moleyn
in 1 5 17 presents a similar picture of decay. The
civitas is described as ^' in spiritualities subject to the
Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland, in
temporalities subject to the king of England." It is
in the island of Hibernia, ''called by the barbarians
Irlandia. The part of it nearer to England is more
civilised, but the rest is wild. A large number of the
inhabitants even live with the cattle in the fields and in
caves. Few wear shoes and almost all subsist on
plunder. The land itself produces nothing but oats
and horses, both excellent and victorious, being more
swift than the English ones, the lighter in colour,
having the easier motion."
The report of this visitation of Ardagh, which is
found in Theiner's Vetera Monnmenta, p. 521, states
that the cathedral church had but one altar and that
exposed to the air, and that it was served by only one
priest who seldom officiated at Mass ; that it was
without sacristy, bell-tower and bell, and sustained
scarcely the necessary equipment for one Mass. The
town contained but four cabins and very few in-
habitants on account of their constant feuds with their
neighbours, who would not allow a certain Bishop
William to exercise any temporal authority over them
and destroyed the town. Even St. Patrick's cathedral
was no exception. We read that in 1474 that '' the
divine service of God is daily withdrawn," and that no
espers were said on St. Patrick's eve.
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 211
Indeed, all the documents, public and private, that
have come down to us from those days, reveal a con-
dition of society deplorable in the extreme. Lawless-
ness, rapine, murder and perpetual warfare made our
unhappy island a den of furies. The Scotch mer-
cenaries who passed over into the north, to settle and
to offer their services to the various chiefs who hap-
pened to be at war, added fresh fuel to the flames that
were extinguishing whatever hopes of peace and pros-
perity were fostered in Irish hearts. Of these a
detachment was cut to pieces by Shane O'Neill to
please Queen Elizabeth — the rashest act he ever per-
petrated. For at Clandeboy the Scots under Alexander
Oge (or Young) and MacGilly Asspuketook a terrible
revenge (1567). Few of the English justices cared
for these things. One of them, Lord Justice Arnold,
grimly informed Lord Cecil, who was much shocked,
that he acted " with the Irish as with bears and ban-
dogs, so that he saw them fight earnestly, and hug
each other well, he cared not who had the worst."
At times even the Government seemed to encourage
these feuds, not that any great encouragement was
required. For we find the Archbishop of Dublin in-
structed in 1520 to establish concord between the Earl
of Desmond and Sir Piers Butler, also to enfeeble and
weaken the strength of the native Irish "as well by
getting their captains from them as by putting division
among them, so they join not together."
But the unhappiest of all the inhabitants of Erin,
if we except the English subjects of the Pale whose
condition beggars description, were the tenants on the
estates of the great Norman barons, who had become
more or less Irish in the course of time. These
noblemen, for all their Irish pretensions, treated their
212 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
tenants with the hauteur of the Norman and the
cruelty of the Celt. Subject to all the impositions the
feudal lords exacted from their tenants, and to the sup-
port the Celtic chieftain demanded of his tribesmen,
these unhappy people, who were principally Celts,
were ground down to the earth, and their wrongs had
no redress in a court presided over by their tyrant,
who cared neither for British nor Brehon law. And
in the King's Courts which sat in Dublin there was
even less chance of fair play for these unfortunates.
For these courts, presided over by English officials,
were notoriously corrupt and practised extortion on
all who placed themselves in their power, surpassing
in corruption even the infamous Chancery Court of
last century, and compelling the tenants to sell their
land and freeholds rather than '•' be under the said ex-
tortion." ^ And before they could enter these ''cities
of refuge," the tenants had to run the gauntlet of their
own masters, who had, as Archbishop Allen wrote to
Cromwell, made laws among themselves, " that who-
soever under any of their rules pursue any action at
the king's law shall forfeit five marks." The Royal
Commission held in 1537, like other Commissions,
did nothing save bringing to light many of these un-
just impositions. But the condition of the Pale was
the worst of all. The forms of exaction and extortion
to which its inhabitants were subjected were legion.
These are detailed at length in the document sent
from the council in 1533 to the Master of the Rolls,
which led to the arrest of the Earl of Kildare in the
following year. The document mentions, in addition
1 State Papers, Henry VIII. Vol. II., pt. 3, p. 9.
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 213
to coyne and livery, '' cuddies, gartie, taking of caanes
for felonies, murders and all other offences, alterages,
biengis, saulties and slaughteaghes."
Another document, twenty years earlier, mentions
" carting, carriages, journies, and other impositions for
hosting and journies and woful war." Moreover black
rents and tributes were wrung from the unhappy people
for the payment of the Irish enemies. And yet when
their property, taken by these enemies, was recovered
by the king's forces, maintained on cesses levied on
the Pale, the Deputies kept it for their own use, in
vulgar parlance, purloined it. Campion tells us that
it was James, Earl of Desmond, and his son, Thomas,
Deputy in 1463, who put upon the "king's subjects
within the counties of Waterford, Corke, Kerry, and
Limericke the Irish impositions of coyne and liverie,
carting, carriages, loadings, cosherings, bonnaght and
such like." He describes these customs as " the very
nurse and teat of all Irish enormities," and denounces
the everlasting cess wrung from the poor tenants by
the Deputy and his gallowglasses, who " eat out the
farmers, beggar the country, and foster a sort of idle
vagabonds ready to rebell if their lord command them,
ever nusseled in stealth and robbery es."
This was a precedent, evil but rapidly learnt, and in
consequence the king's subjects in the south and in
the Pale lived in extreme poverty and debt. Patrick
Finglas, Baron of the Exchequer, 15 15, says — " There
is not eight of the lords, knights, esquires, and gentle-
men of the four shires but be in debt and their land be
made waste, and without brief remedy be had, they
must sell their lands and go to some other land," while
a letter from a Mr. Deythyke, of Dublin, dated 3rd
214 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Sept. 1533, reveals an equally hopeless state of affairs
in the city. In it he speaks of the prolonged fasting
from flesh in the city, where he hopes many saints
may be found. But this fasting, he slyly remarks, is
not a work of supererogation but a case of the fox, " say
of hens when he could not reach them," for " all the
butchers of Dublin hath no so much meat to sell as
would make one mess of brawes ; so as they use white
meat in Dublin, except it be in my Lord of Dublin's
house, or such as have of their own provision." The
next famine in Dublin was owing not to the scarcity
of stock in the county, but to the constant robberies
of cattle at night, and the restless state of the country
which made it dangerous to go even a mile out of the
city to buy meat. But the Deputy would not listen
to any complaints for " the wind hath blown him so
in the eyes that he cannot hear them ! " This is an
instance, we presume, of " the Irish bull." The rob-
beries this poor gentleman describes must have been
of an alarming nature. " There hath been," he states,
'' five or six preys taken out of St. Thomas within
this ten days, so that one butcher for his part hath
lost 220 kine." The result was that "the poor
butchers lie remediless and have closed their shops, and
have taken to making of prekes (prayers), thinking there
is a new Lent." The great ordnance for the Govern-
ment of Ireland in 1534 prohibits a great number of
these impositions. We learn from this document that
different lords and gentlemen within the four shires
were wont to compel their tenants and adherents to
give them night suppers, which went by the euphonious
name of aiddies, and that these self-invited guests
brought with them as many others as they could, to
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 215
the great oppression of their own tenants and the dis-
turbance of the King's subjects for a great number of
miles round in whose stables they put up their horses
and grooms,
They were also in the habit of taking ''a peck of oats
of every plough in seed time, called the great horse's
peck " ; and when the King's Deputy or any other
lord came to visit them, they added the expenses of
entertainment to the rent of their tenants. These
great lords and captains also compelled the King's
subjects to send their own carts and men to draw stuff
to their own buildings, and labour there at their own
charges, and by personal threats wrung gifts of money,
cattle and horse, called bienges, from the King's sub-
jects in the march or frontier.
The Lord Deputy's Book of 1537 declares that
" there is no march borderer, lord, knight, esquire or
gentleman but hath more thieves belonging to him
than true men." Such ruffians were allowed to rob
and spoil the King's subjects, and were protected from
punishment by their masters. The lords marchers,
who were paid for the defence of the King's subjects,
also permitted the neighbouring Irish septs to plun-
der the lands of the smaller gentry and farmers, on the
understanding that theirs should not be touched. And
if they desired to possess any man's freehold, they
suffered, which means encouraged, the Irish to raid
that freeholder's property and drive his cattle, until
the unhappy man was forced to sell his freehold to
them on their own terms. Moreover, these poor free-
holders had not only to pay for the lord's protection,
which was generally of the nature described ; they had
also to defray the expenses of any guests he chose to
2i6 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
entertain, and to keep his gallowglasses, servants and
horses, for as his report says : " the greatest captain
of the English borders will keep no horse or boy in his
own house for the most part." They were also sub-
ject to the insolence of the lord's sons and the out-
rages of his servant without hope of redress. For,
should any of these be accused of stealing, and arrested,
they were at once released on payment of a fine,
which went, not to the plaintiff, but to their master,
so that the latter was interested in encouraging the
misconduct of his own people.
The tenants of the Pale could not even call their
own houses, much less their own souls, their own.
They could not sell a pig or a cow without paying a
fine to the tyrant, who took from them everything he
required at his own price, frequently a " song." A
favourite practice was the regrating of provisions. The
lord, with his followers, would come to the market and
buy up everything, wood and coal and provision, and
sell them again at his own price. They erected weirs
on the rivers, committed riots, made penal laws,
neglected their own children, wore the Irish dress,
spoke the Irish language, and frequently took the
holdings from an English occupier and gave them to
native peasants. In consequence of their lawlessness
the greater portion of the land was uncultivated and the
pastures were not stocked. For the gentry were
crushed as well as the tenantry by the lords, who acted
as absolute monarchs of all they surveyed, worried the
Deputies, and gave many an anxious hour to the king
and his council who, in addition to perpetual unrest,
had to endure heavy financial loss yearly in the up-
keep of the little army in Ireland. The only policy
MISR ULE AND OPPRESSION 2 1 7
that paid then, as now, was that of the Irishman who,
when asked his poHtics in the United States, said : " I
am ahvays agin the Government." So we find Sir
Gerard Shaneson, writing to Sir Thomas Fitzgerald :
" What, thou fool ! thou shalt be more esteemed in
Ireland to take part against the king ; for what hadst
thou been if thy father had not done so ? What was
he set by until he crowned a king (Lambert Simnel)
here ; took Garthe, the king's captain, prisoner ;
hanged his son ; resisted Poyning and all Deputies ;
killed them of Dublin upon Oxmantown Green ;
would suffer no man to rule here for the king but him-
self ? Then the king regarded him, made him De-
puty, and married thy mother to him. Or else thou
never should have had a foot of land, where now thou
mayst despend 400 marks by the year."
What offended the English most of all was the
adoption of the Brehon law and its system of eric, or
compensation for injury fatal and otherwise to property
and person. It was with the greatest difficulty that
the sheriffs put down the Brehon law in the shire land.
The story is told that when Sir William Fitzwilliams
informed the Maguire that he was sending a sheriff
into Fermanagh, which had been made a county,
Maguire replied, '' Your sheriff shall be welcome to
me ; but let me know his ericke or the price of his
head, aforehand, that if my people cut it off, I may
put the ericke upon the country." ^
Under the Geraldines the condition of the king's
subjects of the Pale naturally became worse than ever.
Coin and livery were exacted for their ever increasing
State Papers. Henry VIII. Vol IL, 3, 174.
2i8 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
band of hired assassins — gallowglasses and and kerne
— from the unfortunate EngHsh, who were eaten up
"as it were bread." The captain of the marches and
his kinsmen, called the Welshmen, in addition to '' coin
and foys," or horse meat and man's meat, took cer-
tain quarterly payments called Byerahe, as Justice
Suttrell states, often amounted to 13s. 4d. from the
farmers.
We find the wives of these great lords as tyrannical
as themselves. We read in the letter of Patrick
Finglas that '' the deputies' wives go to cuddies and
put coyne and livery in all places at their pleasure and
do stir up great war." These grand dames levied
all manner of impositions upon their unfortunate
tenants. Of these, Lady Poer of Waterford bore an
unenviable reputation. When the Deputy or any
visitor of importance stayed at her castle, she made
her tenants give mertyeght or a contribution towards
the expense of meat and drink and candles for her
guests. In cases of litigation she demanded two
shillings in the pound, as her fee from both plaintiff and
defendant, after the manner of the Irish Brehon, and
perhaps in emulation of the Milesian princess, who is
described by Caesar Otway as taking on herself the
office of Brehon, and from the Moate Granoge, or
Moat of Little Grace, now known simply as Moate in
Westmeath, ''adjudicating causes and delivering her
oral laws to the people." If a tenant had his cow or
horse stolen, he was required to pay a fine of five
marks for his negligence. If he refused to obey her
sergeant, he was promptly fined, and if one declined
to give coin and livery he had to pay an additional
fine called kyntroisk. And she not only required
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 219
coin and livery for her own boys and horses, but also
for her guests, both English and Irish, chiefly at
Easter and Christmas, which became the most miser-
able instead of the most blessed periods of the year
for the tenant. When her daughters were married a
dowry of sheep and of cattle was "lifted" by her
ladyship from her farmers and villagers, and she made
her journeys to Dublin and England at the expense
of her tenants.
But it is hardly fair to the Irish gentry to regard
the degraded Earl of Desmond as a representative
either of Irish gentry or nobility. Hooker describes
him much in the same way as General Cronje might
have been described by a British officer. " This earl,"
he writes, " was very rude both in gesture and apparel,
having for want of nurture, as much good manners as
his kerne and followers could teach him." The Deputy,
Sir William Bellingham, brought this uncivilized
nobleman to his house and then undertook a task
worthy of Hercules to " instruct, advise and inform "
his unwilling guest. He is said to have made a new
man of him by literally bringing the earl to his knees,
for he ordered him " to kneel upon his knees sometimes
an hour together before he knew his duty." This
degenerate peer had, however, lost English civilization
without acquiring Irish. For there was an Irish culture
still extant which was not indifferent to art and litera-
ture, and often indulged in the sweet luxury of thought
and poesy and music. We can hardly believe that
the O'Connors, who built their stately castle at Dain-
gean in 1537, or the O'Donnells, who lived also in their
Elizabethan mansion in Donegal, lived like savages
and drank like Bohemians, while the country gentlemen
220 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
of England were studying the lessons of chivalry in
the writings of Malory and Spenser. With regard
to the condition of the masses the opinion of the
Irish Council of 1533 may be cited, which was to
the effect that " if there were justice used among them,
they would be found as civil, wise and polite, and as
active as any other nation." While with regard to
the other classes James Stanihurst, the Speaker, as
Campion writes, said in the Irish House of Parliament
in 1570, before Trinity College was founded, "In
mine experience who have not yet seen much more
than forty years, I am able to say that our realm is
at this day an half deal more civil than it was since
noble men and worshipful with others of ability have
used to send their sons into England to the law, to
universities, or to schools." The Speaker referred also
in his speech to the project of a university which had
been shelved for the time, and moved '' the erecting
of grammar schools within every diocese."
An interesting letter from Sir John Harrington,
one of the attendants of the Earl of Essex in his
unhappy expedition to Ireland (1599), describes the
northern Earl O'Neill and his sons, and whom he met
at Carlingford. The O'Neill behaved himself remark-
ably well, excusing his own hard manner of life and
comparing himself to the wolves. The writer says it
were needless to describe "The O'Neill's fern table
and fern forms spread under the stately canopy of
heaven," and remarks, '* that his guards were chiefly
beardless boys without shirts ; who, in the frost, wade
as familiarly through rivers as water-spaniels. With
what charm such a master makes them love him I
know not ; but if he bid them come, they come ; if
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 221
he bid them go, they go ; if he says do this, they
do it."
The sons of this earl seem to have been nice
intelligent boys. Sir John Harrington found " the
two children of good towardly spirit, their age between
thirteen and fifteen, dressed in English clothes, like
the sons of a nobleman, with velvet jerkins and gold
lace, of a good, cheerful aspect and freckled faces ;
not tall of stature but strong and well-set, both of them
speaking English." He presented them with a copy
of an English translation of Ariosto, with which their
father was greatly pleased and " solemnly swore his
boys should read all the book over to him." Hugh
O'Neill himself is said to have been very accomplished,
and as Plowden writes : " spoke four modern languages
with the fluency of a native." The humour of the
earl was shown in his suggestion that when he went
in English dress to the Viceroy's Court he should
be attended by a chaplain in saffron robes, so that he
might divert the attention of the English crowd from
his master. He did not disguise his contempt for the
de-anglicised Englishman, as in the case of Barret,
whose convictions he regarded as a matter of con-
venience, saying of him : '' No matter, I hate the
English churl as if he came yesterday.'' But he
showed an open disregard for religious plundering and
destroying churches and monasteries on his way to
Kinsale, so that a Spanish officer exclaimed that
'' Christ did not die for the Irish," and Lord Essex
said, " Hang thee ! thou talk of a free exercise of
religion ! Thou carest as much for religion as my
horse." In Camden's Elizabeth we have a sad picture
of the fallen chief, who in 1598 defeated the English
222 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
at the Yellow Ford (Beal-an-atha buidhe, Ballyboy),
where, as Fynes Moryson says : " The English, from
their first arrival in the kingdom, never had received
so great an overthrow as this/' and who surrendered
to Lord Mountjoy in Mellifont Abbey on the 30th
March, 1603, six days after Elizabeth had passed
away. The brave nobleman, who had never rallied
his forces since their crushing defeat at Kinsale, now
reduced to despair, entered the presence of the
Deputy, who failed to show the generosity and
courtesy that gallant gentlemen always extend to the
vanquished. It was indeed " vae victis " here, and
yet these were the days of the Sidneys ! The defeated
earl, in mean and shabby attire, cast himself down at
the threshold of the door and made an abject con-
fession of his crimes against her gracious majesty and
most solemn promise of atonement. Moryson (ii. 179)
gives the terms of submission, which included absolute
surrender of all his lands and titles and renunciation
of the King of Spain, and a promise to abstain from
''intermeddling with the urriaghs or fostering with
them or other neighbour lords and gentlemen outside
my country, or exacting black rents of any urriaghs
or bordering lords.'' The unhappy man rode into
Dublin two days afterwards a prisoner of state to
learn that he had surrendered all too soon. But his
mistake was a fortunate matter for Ulster, which had
been reduced to a desert by his rebellion. An eye-
witness, Moryson, says, " No spectacle was
more frequent in the ditches of the towns,
and especially in wasted countries, than to see
multitudes of these poor people dead with their
mouths all coloured green by eating nettles, docks,
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 223
and all things they could rend up above
ground.'^
The one redeeming feature of the country was
the prosperity and growth of the seaport towns. The
quaint old town of Galway, with its interesting
Claddagh or fishing quarter, and the Moorish gate-
ways, and the celebrated house of Lynch, the Irish
Brutus, was at the zenith of its fame in the reign of
Henry VI I. , during which time its enterprising
burghers, as Hardiman relates in his '' History of
Galway," "planned the cutting of a passage from
Lough Corrib to the sea, as well as repairing their city
after a fire, paving their streets, building an hospital,
extending their wall and erecting quays." It is hoped
that the same strenuous spirits of improvement may
again become embodied in the city of the tribes. This
and other cities on the seaboard thrived and prospered
while the rest of the island was sunk in torpor and
decay, simply because they were allowed to work out
their own salvation in their own fashion without let or
hindrance from feudal lord, Irish chieftain, or those
harpies of the Pale — the officials sent from England
Limerick is described by William Body in 1536 as
a " wondrous proper city and a strong and standeth
environed with the river Shenon,^ and it may be called
little London for the situation and the plenty." The
writer goes on to say that its ancient castle, still a
formidable structure, was in " need of reparation." It
is indeed as much a sign of its own commercial enter-
prise and republican independence as a proof of the
deputy's laxity and the Council's feebleness to find
^ SioriAinn (Shin-an) not Shannon, was the proper pronunciation
Mr. Body's spelling was more accurate than ours.
224 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
this city of the barren land, Luimneach, carrying on
war by sea and land and concluding treaties with the
rival city of the great marsh of Munster, CorcacJi-Dior-
Mumhan, now abridged to Cork, in 1520. This
reminds one of the long and internecine struggles
between the rival republics of the sea, Venice and
Genoa, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
The troubles of the inhabitants of the Pale were,
however, mitigated in the course of time. But they
had, like many a patient, to be worse before they could
be better. It was in Elizabeth's reign that matters
began to amend. To the skill and courage of the
Dublin bands and soldiers references are made in the
histories of the period. They assisted in punitive
expeditions organised by Sussex and Sidney against
Shane O'Neill ; and it was only with their assistance
that Sir Henry Sidney '' to the inestimable benefit of
the realm brought under obedience the disordered
countries of Leix, Slewmargy Ofalie, Irrye and Glen-
malire then late possessed by the O'Connors, O'Mores^
O'Dempseys and other Irish rebels." And '' with a
fair company " under John Usher, Sheriff, and Patrick
Buckley, they helped Sussex to attack and defeat a
roving Scotch pirate, James MacConell, who was after-
wards connected with the notorious Shane O'Neill, to
the misfortune of both. Their young men were well
taught in the foreign universities of Paris and Louvain
and also at Oxford and Cambridge, Their houses
were furnished "with plate, furniture, and apparel."
Their towns were walled and populous, and their home
produce and foreign trade was increasing when Sidney
(nth Elizabeth) held a parliament in Dublin for the
purpose of imposing a tax on wines, which called forth
MISRULE AND OPPRESSION 225
so angry a remonstrance from the gentlemen of the
Pale that a parliament was not summoned for many
years after. Sidney, in his parting oration (given in
Campion) to the parliament after the defeat and death
of Shane O'Neill (1570), defended his policy of main-
taining an armed garrison in Ireland, and contrasted
the condition of life in the Pale at the time with that
which prevailed in a previous age. " Consider," he
said, "the effect of an army wrought in these tew
years, for doubt whereof you are nothing so oft nor so
lamentably pelled as your ancestors were, which of
you durst be stored with coyne, knowing the rebels'
mouth watered thereat ? Which of them had leisure
to build, to lie soft and warm, to take his ease in his
own home ? Which of them were plated or jewelled,
or attired themselves, their wives and children sump-
tuously, after their calling, as ye do now ? If your
bags be full where they dwelled homely ; if you sleep
on feather beds, where they slept on couches, if you
be sumptuous, where they were scant, you have the
more cause to honour that sceptre, that so directeth
you and to love her warrant that procureth you
this quietness, the mother of all your wealth and
prosperity."
CHAPTER XV.
Legal and Other Reforms.
There are many interesting notices of Ireland and
its inhabitants in the writings of Spenser, Fynes
Moryson, Sir John Davis, Campion, and others.
Spenser well describes the pasturing capacity of the
country : " For though the whole tract of the country
be mountainous and woody, yet there are many goodly
valleys amongst them, fit for fair habitations, to which
those mountains adjoined will be a great increase of
pasturage, for that country is a great soil for cattle,
and very fit for breed ; as for corn it is nothing
material, save only for barley and oats, and some
places, for rye." Fynes Moryson, Secretary of Lord
Mountjoy (1600-1603) also remarks upon "the plenty
of grass which makes the Irish have infinite multi-
tudes of cattle, and in the heat of the last rebellion
the very vagabond rebels had great multitudes of
cows, which they still, like the nomads, drove with
them whithersoever themselves were driven, and
fought for them as for their altars and families. He
says they carried on '* a frequent, though somewhat
poor, traffic for their hedes — the cattle being in
general very little, and only the men and the grey-
hounds of great stature." For fear of thieves and
wolves, which became so numerous and daring as to
enter the villages and suburbs, the cattle were driven
into the bawns of the castles, where they were allowed
to stand all night without so much as a lock of hay.
LEGAL AND OTHER REFORMS 227
Very little hay was made, doubtless owing to the
dampness of the climate as much as to '' the sluggish-
ness " of the people, and that little was kept for the
horses. " Their horses," he writes, " called hobbies
are much commended for their ambling, grace, and
beauty ; but Ireland yields few good horses for service
in war, and the said hobbies are much inferior to our
geldings in strength to endure long journies, and
being bred in the fenny, soft ground of Ireland, soon
lamed when they were brought into England." With
regard to sheep, Fynes Moryson remarks, "they
abound in flocks of sheep, which they shear twice in
the year, but their wool is coarse, and merchants may
not export it." The reason why they were forbidden
was that the poor might be employed in turning it
into cloth, '' namely rugs, whereof the best are made
at Waterford, and mantles, generally worn by men
and women, and exported in great quantity." They
had such plenty of linen cloth that " the wild Irish
used to wear thirty or forty ells in a shirt, all gathered
and wrinkled, and washed in saffron because they
never put them off till they were worn out."
The same writer also notices the great recuperative
power of the country, which " in a short time after
the rebellion appeared like the new spring, to put on
the wonted beauty ; " the " excellent marble near
Dublin, Kilkenny, and Cork ; " the '' excellent fishes,
as salmons, oysters (which are preferred before the
English), and shell-fish, with all other kinds of sea-
iish ; " the " frequent lakes of great circuit yielding
plenty of fish; ''such plenty of pheasants, as I
have known sixty served at one feast ; " and " very
many eagles, and great plenty of hares, conies, hawks,
228 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
called goshawks, much esteemed with us, and bees."
He is of opinion that the mountains would yield
abundance of metals if the public good were not
hindered by the seditious and slothful character of the
inhabitants, that if the Irish were industrious in
fishing " they might export salted and dried fish with
great gain." He comments severely on the indolence
of the people. Although the country had " great
plenty of birds and fowls, by reason of their natural
sloth they had little delight or skill in birding or
fowling." Again, he says : " the best sorts of flowers and
fruits are much rarer in Ireland than in England,
which, notwithstanding, is more to be attributed to the
inhabitants than to the air," and remarks that the Irish
might have abundance of excellent fish, " if the fisher-
men were not so possessed with the natural fault of
slothfulness, as no hope of gain, scarcely the fear of
authority, can in many places make them come out of
their houses, and put to sea." And the consequence
was that Scots and Englishmen employed as fisher-
men " make profit of the inhabitants' sluggishness."
Lord Mountjoy, a devoted angler, must have felt in-
dignant at this neglect of his favourite sport. There
were, however, other explanations for this remissness.
In the first place, there was no encouragement given
to the people to make an effort to improve themselves.
For instance, the Irish were not permitted to build
great ships for war, but had " little ships in some sort
armed to resist pirates, for transporting of com-
modities into France and Spain, yet no great number
of them." It is no wonder that the Irish had then
small skill in navigation, but Fynes Moryson is con-
fident that " the nation being bold and warlike.
LEGAL AND OTHER REFORMS 229
would, no doubt, prove brave seamen if they shall
practise navigation, and could possibly prove indus-
trious therein." Again he points out that " in time of
peace the Irish transport good quantity of corn, yet
they may not transport it without licence, lest in any
sudden rebellion the king's forces and his good subjects
should want corn." These were acts of repressive
legislation at the time.
Again, he comments upon the dampness of the soil
and air, which caused lateness of harvest and indolence
of spirit, besides feebleness of body. When describing
Lord Mountjoy, he says, *' he took tobacco abund-
antly, and of the best, which, I think, preserved him
from sickness, especially in Ireland, where the foggy
air of the bogs, and waterish fowl, plenty of fish, and
generally all meats, with the common sort always un-
salted and green roasted, do most prejudice the
health." He also states that the country people had
an excellent remedy for the rawness of their air and
the looseness of the body, the country disease, in their
aqzia vitae, vulgarly called usquebaugh. And when
treating the ague, the women gave the sick man no
meat, but milk and some ordinary remedies. He
also notes that Ulster and the western parts of
Munster yield "vast woods, in which the rebels,
cutting up trees and casting them in heaps, used to
stop the passages therein, as also in fenny and boggy
places to fight with the English," but he was deceived
in his expectation of finding Ireland woody, ''having
found in my long journey from Armagh to Kinsale
few or no woods by the way, except the great woods
of Offaly, and some low, shrubby places, which they
call glins." However, he states that the Irish " export
230 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
great quantities of wood to make barrels called pipe-
staves." In these woods he also noticed some fallow
deer, but in the time of the war he never saw any
venison served at the table, but only in the houses of
the Earls of Ormond and Kildare and of the English
commanders.
Another writer of that period, Sir John Davis, in
his Discoveiy, pays a remarkable tribute to the people
and country of Ireland. He has observed, he writes,
" in sundry journeys and circuits the good tempera-
ture of the air ; the fruitfulness of the soil ; the pleasant
and commodious seats for habitation ; the safe and
large ports and havens lying open for traffic into all
the west parts of the world ; the long inlets of many
navigable, and so many great lakes and fresh ponds
within the land, as the like are not to be seen in any
part of Europe ; the rich fishings and wild-fowl of all
kinds, and, lastly, the bodies and minds of the people
endowed with extraordinary abilities of nature." He
also gives the people credit for a desire to keep the
law. '' I dare affirm," he writes, '' that for the space
of five years past there have not been found so many
malefactors worthy of death in all the six circuits of
the realm, which is now divided into thirty-two shires
at large, as in one circuit of six shires, namely the
western circuit in England, and he adds that '' in time
of peace the Irish are more fearful to offend the law
than the English, or any other nation whatsoever."
A great reformation had taken place in the character
of the people between the beginning of the sixteenth
and the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In
the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. it was
reported that the king's laws were obeyed and
LEGAL AND OTHER REFORMS 231
executed in four shires only, and Allen, Master of the
Rolls, said that the "land of Ireland was so much
decayed that the king's laws were not obeyed 20
miles in compass," — hence the byword they dwelt
" by west of the law, which dwell beyond the river
Barrow." Many causes had helped to bring about this
unhappy state of affairs. There were two customs,
fosterage and gossipred, which encouraged the spirit of
factiousness. ''Fosterage or alterage," as Sir John Davis
remarks, 'hath been a stronger alliance than blood.'"
Of gossipred, or spiritual affinity, "no nation ever
made so religious account thereof as the Irish " ; and
a juror " who was gossip to either of the parties
might be challenged as not indifferent." It was with
gossips as with Scotch shrimps — " look how they stick
together." Among other things which lowered the
people, Sir John Davis mentions "common repudia-
tion of wives, promiscuous generation of children,
neglect of lawful matrimony, uncleanness in apparel,
diet and lodging." These Irish customs gradually
contaminated the English colonists, who became
worse than the natives themselves, as the verse in
White Book of Exchequer hath it : —
By graunting charters of peas
To false English withouten leas
This land shall be much undoo.
But gossipred and alterage
And leesing^ of our language
Have muckly holp thereto.
Something of the misrule and oppression of the
Kildares has already been seen. But Maurice
FitzThomas, the first Earl of Desmond, enjoys the
^ Leesing means losing, cf. " Take heed you leese it not, Signior."
B. Jonson, " Every Man out of his Humour," v. i.
232 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
distinction, according to Davis, of being the first
English lord that imposed coyne and livery upon the
king's subjects, the first to reject English laws and
government, the first to make a distinction between
the English of blood and the English by birth. And
as this Maurice, the first earl, raised the greatness of
his house by Irish exactions, Gerald, the last earl, did
at last ruin and reduce it to nothing by the like ex-
tortions. The first occasion of the rebellion was when
he attempted to levy black rents and cosheries, after
the Irish fashion, upon the Decies in the county of
Waterford. In this he was opposed by Ormond.
But the misconduct of the English nobility — the great
territorial barons in Ireland — is sufficient to explain
much of the lawnessness of the people. Sir Arthur
Chichester, who was Lord Deputy, 1 604-161 6, at-
tempted to carry out a great scheme of reform with
some success. He established two other circuits
for justices of assize in Connaught and Munster.
The mountains and " glynnes " on the south side of
Dublin were made shireland, and their people, who
had been veritable thorns in the side of the Pale?
were subjected to English law and reduced to quiet.
The judges were increased " like good planets in their
several spheres " to carry the light and influence of
justice throughout the land. By these visitations of
justice the people were taught that they were the sub-
jects of the kings of England, and not the vassals of
their lords, whose cosherings^ and cesses were declared
^ Cosher (Ir. coif its a feast), to live at free quarters upon dependants
or relations. See The Irish Budibras, 1689:
*' A very fit and proper house, Sir,
For such an idle guest to cosher."
*' Cosherings were visitations and progresses made by the lord and his
LEGAL AND OTHER REFORMS 233
to be illeg-al. These assizes had considerable influence
upon the manners of the people, and caused them to
remove their glibbs, to convert their mantles into
cloaks, and to send their children to schools to be
taught the English language. Sir John Davis, who
commends the judicious plantation of Ulster, where
the settler received more than 3,000 acres and was re-
quired to build and improve the country, had observed
of Poynings' laws that " they were like lessons set for
a lute that is broken and out of tune, of which lessons
little use can be made till the lute be made fit to be
played on." The lute would seem to be made fit
now, for he observes of these reforms that " the clock
of the civil government is now well set and all the
wheels thereof do move in order. The strings of this
Irish harp, which the civil magistrate doth finger, are
all in tune." The revenues, at all events, were doubled,
by the giving of justice to all, and the people were
settled because they felt that their earthly possessions
were more secure, now that a tribunal of some kind
had been appointed.
followers among his tenants ; wherein he did eat thera out of house and
home," writes Sir J. Davis in State of Ireland. " Sometimes he con-
trived in defiance of the law to live by coshering, that is, by quartering
himself on the old tenants of his faimly " (Macaulay, His. Eng.) The
same writer says, " Commissioners were scattered profusely among idle
cosherers, who claimed to be descended from good Irish families." In
the reign of Chas. I. (1672) an Act was passed for the suppression of
Cosherers and idle wanderers, threatening severe penalties " if any per-
son or persons . . . shall cosher, lodge, or cesse themselves upon
the inhabitants'" Petty (PoZ. Anat., 1697) complains that " there are
yet to spare who are Cosherers and Fait-neauts, 220,000." The Times
of March 11, 1865, defined a cosherer "as one who pretends to be an
Irish gentleman and will not work. In Ireland the meanings of the
word are based upon the feudal custom of the lord of the soil to demand
lodging and entertainment for himself and his followers from his tenants.
But in England cosher meant to c^a^, e.g., " we' coshered over the
events of the evening." (Macaulay Life and Lett., 1,5, 339), and
.caress, e.g., Trollope {Barchester Towers) speaks of coshering up paople.
234 'THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Sir John Davis comments on the neglect of Ireland
and the Irish by the English sovereigns. Here, in-
deed, he lays his finger on one of the causes of the
distress and unhappiness which our present gracious
sovereign is removing by his almost annual visits,
and points out that on every occasion when Ireland
was visited by a sovereign a general submission was
made. He also indicates the neglect of providing
the Irish and English of the Pale with equal laws.
But this atonement was made by Chichester's reform
in the reign of James I.
The state of Ireland on the whole cannot there-
fore be said to have been much improved by the first
362 years of English rule. The document in the
State Papers of Henry VI IPs reign, known as " the
State of Ireland and the Plan of its Reformation,"
gives an eloquent but lurid description of the con-
dion of the country. This document asserts that
there were more than sixty counties called regions
in Ireland, some as large as a shire and others less,
occupied by the king's Irish enemies and governed by
sixty '' chief captains," who rejoice in such high flown
titles as kings, princes, dukes, archdukes, who lived
by the sword, made war as they chose, held all their
property by the sword, and only obeyed those who
could subdue them with the sword. They had ob-
tained their position by force of arms and were not
succeeded by their sons unless they were the strongest
of their nation — "for there shall be none chief captain
in any of the said regions by lawful succession, but
by fort mayne and election." The smaller chiefs,
called "petty captains," were described as making
war with the " chief captain " and one another.
LEGAL AND OTHER REFORMS 235
The title ''captain" may seem somewhat odd, but it
was the usual English style of these gentry. For instance,
Archbishop Alan when speaking of a certain part of
Wicklow says — '' ubi O'Byrne capitaneus." Spenser
suggested an army of 10,000 foot and 1,000 horse, of
whom 80,000 are " to lie in garrison upon the Earl of
Tyrone, 1,000 upon MacHugh, the rest upon some
parts of Connaught," and that the English colonists
should be planted in strong numbers among the Irish
septs, so that " they would not be able to stir or to
murmur," and would establish the Lord Deputy at
" Athie (i^thy) or thereabouts, upon the skirt of that
unquiet country, so that he might sit, as it were, at
the very maine maste of the ship, whence he might
easily overlooke and sometimes over-reach the Moores,
the Dempsies, the Connors, O'Carroll, O'Molloy and
all the heape of Irish nations which there lye hudled
together without any to overawe them or containe
them in duty." One of the most lawless of these
captains was the above-mentioned Pheagh MacHugh
of the O'Byrne sept, whose residence, or " fastness,"
was at Ballinacor, in Glenmalure, which appears to
have been a camp of refuge for all the outlaws in the
land, while their chief was " a base varlet, that being
but of late grown out of the dunghill, beginneth now
to over-crow those high mountaines." The time these
people chose for their incursions into the Pale — their
' Castle season ' — was winter, " for then the nights were
longest and darkest, and the countries around about
are most full of corn."
Besides these sixty captains of the Irish enemies
there were thirty great captains of the degenerate
English who had become absorbed by the native
2 36 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
tribes and had adopted the Irish customs, and had
neither English law nor sheriff. These had possession
of Waterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick, Kerry,
Carlow, half the county of Meath, half the county of
Kildare, half the county of Dublin and Wexford, the
"county of Connaught," the ''county of Ulster," and
half the county of Uriel, All the English of these
districts, except those dwelling in the walled towns
and cities, had perforce to speak Irish, and to dress
and live like the Irish, and as this Document pathe-
tically remarks, all these English folk would " right
glad to obey the king's laws if they might be de-
fended by the king of the Irish enemies ; and because
they defend them not, and the King's Deputy may not
defend them, therefore they are all turned from the
obedience of the king's laws and liveth by the sword
after the manner of the Irish enemies."
Furthermore, the loyal subjects of the king living in
half the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Uriel
(Louth) were grievously oppressed by the king's courts
and justices, which were never reduced in number since
the time when all the country was subject to the king's
laws, and were so vexed by this unnecessary expense
that they would gladly sell their freeholds rather than
suffer their exactions. The freeholders of the marches
where the king's law was not obeyed were in a worse
plight, exposed as they were, both to the incursions
of the king's enemies and the exactions of the king's
officers. For " what with the extortion of coygne and
livery daily, and with the wrongful exaction of posting
money, of carriage and cartage daily," the king's
yearly subsidy and tribute and black rent to the Irish
enemies, the English folk of Dublin, Meath, Kildare
LEGAL AND OTHER REFORMS 237
and Uriel were more oppressed than any other folk of
the land, English or Irish.
The document quotes a legend of S. Brigit in
Fandar's book, Sa/us Populi, where the holy woman
is represented as enquiring of an angel ''of what
Christian land was the most souls damned," and the
angel showed her a land in the west part of the world.
Enquiring the reason why, she was informed
that '' there the Christian folk dieth most out ot
charity," owing to continual war, and that '' without
charity no soul can be saved." The angel then
showed how ''the Christian folk of that land "fell
down into hell as thick as any hail shower." For
" there is no land in the world of so long-continued
war within himself, ne of so great sheddmg of Christian
blood, ne of so great robbing, spoiling, praying
(preying) and burning, ne of so great wrongful ex-
tortion continually as Ireland." Campion, however,
told a different story. He writes that the Irish " are
in no ways outrageous against holy men." And he
mentions the argument between Giraldus Cambrensis
and the Archbishop of Cashel on the subject. The
former had declared that the Irish had not produced
a single martyr, to which the other replied that the
Irish people had ever spared the blood of the saints,
but that they have now been delivered to a nation that
is well used to making martyrs.
In answer to the question — "Why the Irish folk
be grown so strong and the king's subjects so feeble
and fallen in so great rebellion for the most part,"
the document proceeds to say : — " Some sayeth
that the prelates of the church and clergy is much
cause of all the misorder of the land ; for there is ne
238 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
archbishop, ne bishop, abbot, ne prior, parson, ne
vicar, ne any other person of the church, high or
low, great or small, English or Irish, that wish to preach
the word of God, saving the friars beggars : and
where the word of God do cease, there can be no
grace, and without the special grace of God the land
may never be reformed."
CHAPTER XVI.
Clonmacnoise and Delvin.
A BOOK on the Midland Septs of Ireland would be
incomplete without some notice of the most famous of
the midland monasteries — Clonmacnoise, generally
known as the " Seven Churches," the chequered his-
tory of which is a mirror of Celtic life in the midlands.
Seirkeiran, was founded by one Kiaran and Clon-
macnoise by another. The latter was called Macant-
saoir, or the son of a carpenter. Clonmacnoise, also
known as Druim Tipraid (hill of the well), Clonensis
Dunkeranensis, or the Dun of Kiaran, and Killoon, or
the church of the graves, was for centuries an indepen-
dent See. In 1568, however, it was united to Meath.
When Meath was divided it was included in Westmeath.
And in 1688 it was united to the King's County. For
then " Clonmacnoise and 3,000 acres of land by the
management and procurement of Mr. Thomas Coghlan,
through the favour of Dr. Anthony Martin, Bishop of
Meath, were taken from the barony of Clonlonan in
Westmeath, and annexed to the barony of Garrycastle
in the King's County."
Standing amid these splendid memorials of the
ancient Celtic Church, the stone crosses, the groups of
churches with their carved doorways, the graveyard
with its monuments of departed kings, bishops and
abbots, dominated by two noble round towers,
the casual visitor cannot but be impressed, the initiated
cannot fail to be inspired. Here is the TeampuU
240 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Cailleach, or " Church of the Nuns," finished by Dear-
vorgail, the beautiful but fickle wife of O'Rourke,
whose elopement with King Dermot of Leinster, in
1 1 52, led to such irreparable disaster. In 1167 she
found penitence and peace within these historic walls.
There is the Reiliach Cailleach, or cemetery of the
nuns. Here is the beautiful doorway made, as the
Irish Chroniclers tell us, by the order of Odo, dean of
Clonmacnoise in 1280. Here are interred the bones
of Roderick O' Conor, King of Connaught and of all
Ireland, in 1198, and with him an innumerable host of
Irish kings and princes, O'Melaghlins, O'Kellys,
MacDermotts, and others, who had been the public
benefactors of the monastery in their lives and in their
death were not divided from it. As Archdall in his
Monastico7i Hibemicuni writes : '' And what was a
strong inducement and contributed much towards en-
riching this house, it was believed that all persons
who were interred in the holy ground belonging to it
had insured themselves a sure and immediate ascent
to heaven."
It is little to be wondered at, then, that Clonmac-
noise was chosen with pious forethought, as their last
resting place, by many who had evinced little piety
and no religion in their lives. And we are not sur-
prised to learn that " its landed property was so great,
and the number of cells subjected to it so numerous,
that almost half of Ireland was said to be within the
bounds of Clonmacnoise." But the wealth and fame
of the abbey proved to be the cause of its downfall.
Its history is one long record of endowment and
pillage, restoration and renewed burnings. The Four
Masters and the Annals of Clofwtacnoise, compiled
CLONMACNOISE AND DELVIN 241
by one Tighernach, abbot of the monastery, who died
in 1088, and was reputed to be "a. wise, learned, and
eloquent teacher and doctor," give us a full account of
its chequered career. The Ostmen generally have the
credit of the ruin of Clonmacnoise. But they only
followed the example of the Irish. We read that
Felim, king of Cashel, destroyed all Clonmacnoise by
fire, even to the door of the church, and slew many of
the clergy in 830. In 834 and 839 the Danes sailed
up the Shannon and plundered the abbey. Some
years later Turgesius, who had restored paganism in
Armagh; and who desired to establish a pagan sanc-
tuary in the West, appointed his wife Ota as priestess
in Clonmacnoise to offer unspeakable sacrifices upon
its altars. But it is questionable if Turgesius was a
worse enemy of Clonmacnoise than Felim of Cashel,
who again, in 846, plundered the " tearmon lands and
houses of St. Kiaran," and brought upon himself the
malediction of the abbot from which he never re-
covered. During the years 930-960 the abbey was
plundered on several occasions by the Danes of Dub-
lin and Limerick, as well as by the king of Cashel,
the Munstermen and the people of Ossory. In 1199
Cahall O'Connor plundered the '' hospitals " of the
abbey, which probably refers to the " house of the
guests" erected 1106, and he was followed by the
English of Meelick, who plundered '' the church, sanc-
tuary and town of Clonmacnoise, and carried away the
vestments, chalices and the books of the community,
and laid waste all the gardens and houses in the town."
In 1227, the town was set on fire three times by the
Irish, and in 1552 the garrison of Athlone plundered
both town and abbey and left '' neither large nor small,
Q
242 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
bell, image, altarbook, gem, nor even glass in a window
in the walls of the church." It is not surprising, then,
that the once great school of Clonmacnoise, which re-
ceived a letter from Alcuin, the learned secretary of
Charlemagne, and a gift of two hundred sicli from his
royal master, when Colchu, " master of all the Scots
of Ireland," was its chief scribe (790 circ), was, accord-
ing to the report made to the Roman Pontiff in 1 5 1 5, a
neglected and ruined habitation, the see itself being
valued at only thirty ducats a year.
On one occasion we read of a plunderer of this
abbey being overtaken by a tardy justice. In 1 108
the church was robbed of vestments presented by one
king, the silver cup and gilt cross, the gift of another,
and the silver cup which the Primate of Armagh had
given. The perpetrator of the deed remained un-
discovered until 1 1 30 when Connor O'Brien found the
jewels in the possession of a Dane of Limerick, one
Gille Comhdhan, and delivered him up to the com-
munity for punishment. Before his execution the
man is said to have confessed that he had tried to
escape several times by sea from Ireland, but that on
each occasion St. Kiaran with his staff turned the
^^essel back to land.
The cloictheach (round tower) of Clonmacnoise was
finished by O'Malone in 1 124, but we read that on
Easter Day in 1135 lightning struck off the head of
the cloictheach of Clonmacnoise, and pierced that of
Roscrea. This is an important note regarding these
mysterious buildings.
In the same barony of Garrycastle are some interest-
ing ruins. These are at Clonoony, Moystown,
CLONMACNOISE AND DELVIN 243
Liscloony, Fadden, and Tisaran, and are the remains
of what were once known as the '' Fair Castles " of
MacCoghlan, lord of Delvin. The Four Masters
make mention of " a Coghlan of the Castles " so far
back as 1 249, and when recording the death of John
MacCoghlan in 1590 say, "there was not a man of
his estate, of the race of Cormac Cas, whose mansions,
castles, and good dwelling-houses were better arranged,
or more comfortable than his. The castle of Clonoony,
some eight miles north of Birr, was probably built in
the reign of Henry VI 1 1. The Four Masters describe
a conflict which took place in 15 19 "between the tribe
of Fergal MacCoghlan and the tribe of Donal, in
which James MacCoghlan, Prior of Gallen, and heir-
presumptive of Delvin Eathra was killed by the s/iot
of a ball from the castle of Cluain Danihna. Cluain
Damhna, which means Damhan's or Davin's meadow,
was the original name of Clonoony, which is called
" Cluain-Nona " by the Four Masters at the year
1553. The expression sJiot of a ball is interesting
from the fact that the first muskets are said to have
been brought into Ireland from Germany in 1489. In
1553 we read of a bold enterprise on the part of a
" churl," who " acted treacherously towards the warders
of the castle, and slew three distinguished men of them
with a chopping-axe, tied a woman who was within,
and then took possession of the castle." Coins of the
Elizabethan period have been found at Clonoony, but
a far more remarkable find was the discovery made
by some workmen in 1803 in the vicinity of the castle.
In a cave they came across a heap of stones. Removing
these they found a large slab of limestone, eight feet
long by four wide and one foot thick. On the slab,
244 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
which covered the bones of two persons, was the
inscription : —
Here under leys Elizabeth and
Mary Bullyn daughters of Thomas
Bullyn son of George Bullyn the
Son of George Bullyn Viscount
Rochford son of Thomas Bullyn
Erie of Ormond and Willsheere.
These persons must have been second cousins of Queen
Elizabeth, their ancestor having most probably fled to
Ireland to escape the wrath of Henry VIII., who
seems to have attainted the whole Bullyn family, after
the execution of the unfortunate Anne.
Another stronghold of the MacCoghlans was the
Caislean-an-Fheadain or the Castle of Fadden, not
far from Bellmount, the residence of Mr. Perry. This
was built before 1520, when, as the Fotii^ Masters
relate, " Torlogh, the son of Felim MacCoghlan, lord
of Delvin Eathra, a man distinguished for wisdom and
learning, a man of prosperity and great riches, who
built the castles of Fadan and Cincoradh, died after
a well-spent life." This castle of Fadden is also men-
tioned in the Four Masters under the year 1540,
when " James Oge, the son of the prior MacCoghlan,
was treacherously beheaded by Ceadach O'Melaghlin
in his own castle, and great destruction befel the
country on that account." In 1548 Edmond Fahy
invaded the district of Delvin. For eight days he
besieged this castle, and Cormac MacCoghlan, who
was residing in it, was compelled to give him hostages,
"after which he and Edmond made a gossipship with
one another."
The castle had been attacked six years before by
the sons of O' Madden, who plundered and burnt the
CLONMACNOISE AND DELVIN 24s
town, but were beaten off and pursued to Tisaran.
On a subsequent occasion the castle fell into the hands
of the enemy, but was recovered in a remarkable
manner by a prisoner who was confined in it, and
handed it over again to the MacCoghlans, 1557. The
MacCoghlans had other castles at Magh-Istean or
Moystown, Lis-Cluaine or Liscloony, which was com-
pleted, according to the Fotir Masters, in 1556, and
at Tisaran, which was plundered, and its churches
plundered by the sons of O' Madden, for which act of
sacrilege they were punished by Felim O'Melaghlin,
wlio marched to Clonfert and plundered its church
and monastery. Tisaran means Saran's house {Teach-
Saram). Saran was of the race of Dealbhna. His
well, Tobar-Sarain, is near the church. Other castles
were at Kincor and Gallen near Ferbane, and at
Garrycastle, the garden of the castle, close to Banagher.
The last gave its name to the barony.
In 1 55 1 the MacCoghlan made his submission to
the English Crown at Athlone, and obtained a pardon
and a patent of his estate, and " Delvin Eathra was
put under rent for the king." The MacCoghlans seem
to have had some difficulty in keeping the peace. For
we read that Art, the son of Cormac MacCoghlan,
killed Robert Nugent, a foster-brother of the Earl of
Kildare, in 1554. In retaliation the earl levied a
boroihme or cattle tribute of three hundred and forty
cows on the district as eric or fine. In 1585 John,
the son of Art, son of Cormac MacCoghlan, attended
Elizabeth's parliament in Dublin ; but shortly after-
wards with 200 men he joined the O'Connors and
O'Molloys in their rebellion. The most remarkable
member of the clan was Thomas MacCoghlan, called
246 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the " Maw," who died in 1790. He is described by
the Chevalier Montmorency as " a remarkably hand-
some man, gallant, eccentric, proud, satirical, hos-
pitable in the extreme, and of expensive habits." The
" Maw " maintained the old customs of the country,
and the ancestral mode of living and law. His house
was open to strangers. His tenants, who were his
vassals, paid their rents, partly in kind, partly in
mone}% When a tenant died he levied the fine of
Mortmain and became heir to the deceased. No law
save the Brehon code, occasionally enforced by the
" Maw's" riding-whip, was allowed to be administered
within his domain. He permitted no other member
of the sept to use the " Mac." As he died without
any lawful heir, his estates passed to the son of his
sister, Denis Daly of Dalystown, and at his death
were sold to different people. This MacCoghlan sat
for the borough of Banagher in the Irish Parliament.
Delvin, which abounded in warlike castles, was not
without its sanctuaries of religion. Banagher, Beann-
char or pointed hill, is in the parish of Reynagh,
called after St. Reynagh or Regnacia, sister of the
St. Finian of Clonard, who died in 863, and founded
a church called Kill-Rignaighe, the ruins of which are
in the centre of the town. Near Ferbane are the
ruins of the abbey described by Archdall as the
" Monastery of Galinne in Delbhna, McCochlain "
founded by Saint Canoe or Mocanoc about 492 and
burnt by Felym McCroimhain in 820. The abbey
seems to have been rebuilt by a colony of Welsh
monks, who founded a school there and gave it the
name it bears. In the vicinity of this abbey many
fierce battles were waged between the MacCoghlans
CLONMACNOISE AND DELVIN 247
and the Fahys, O'Maddens and O'Melaghllns. The
site of this abbey and its lands were granted to Sir
Gerald Moore in 161 2. The ruins thereof are in the
demesne of Gallen Priory, the residence of Sir Andrew
Armstrong, Bart. Not far from these ruins are the
remains of another ancient house, the Abbey of Glin,
founded by St. Diarmid, whose successor, St. Comgan,
died in 563. It too went the way of all the Celtic
foundations, being plundered in 1041 and destroyed
by fire in 1077. At Killegally near Glin, where St.
Trena was abbot in the sixth century, are also ruins.
At Lemanaghan, or St. Manchan's grey land, are
the ruins of another old establishment. In Archdall's
time (1786) they were surrounded by a bog " at present
impassable." Among the modern residences in the
barony may be mentioned Ballylin, Doon, Mount
Carteret, and Cloghan Castle. The last, in the parish
of Lusmagh, was a stronghold of the O'Maddens, who
ruled over Siol Anmchada, or Silancia. It was called
"Cloghan O'Madden," and in 1595 it was besieged
and taken by the Lord Deputy, Sir William Russell,
who gave an interesting account of the incident in his
journal. The roof of the castle being covered with
thatch was set on fire. Then a fire was kindled at the
door by the besiegers, who " burnd and kild in the
castle fortie six persons, besides two women and a
boye which were saved by my Lord's appointment."
Cloghan Castle and its lands were granted to Garrett
Moore in the reign of Charles II. It was the residence
of the late Colonel Graves, who was High Sheriff in
1880, and whose son, Lieutenant Graves, R.N., lost
his life doing his duty in the recent " Gladiator "
disaster.
248 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Of the warlike O'Maddens, space will only permit
the notice of Eoghan (Owen) O' Madden, who defeated
the clan Rickard Burke in 1336, and who died in 1346.
A poet of his own day described him as '' a man with
the courage of a true lion, the Lion of Birra, with the
venom of the serpent, the Hawk of the Shannon, a
tower which defends the frontiers, a Griffin of the race
of Conn of the Hundred Battles, a large man of
slender body, with a skin like the blossom of the apple
trees, with brown eyebrows, black curling hair, long
fingers, and a cheek like the cherries." He appears
to have married the daughter of MacWilliam, who is
described as "of the fair hand and curling tresses."
The O'Maddens had their own monastery at Meelick
in the diocese of Clonfert and on the banks of the
Shannon, founded by an O' Madden in 1479. The
O'Madden, who died in 1566, is described as " learned
in Latin and Irish, and the most inoffensive of the
chiefs of Ireland in his time, the defender of his land,
the pillar of protection of women, of the poor, of the
weak and destitute." This panegyric proves that the
warlike virtues were not the only qualities esteemed
by the Irish of the Elizabethan period, and that while
learning added the leaven of humanity it did not
necessarily diminish their courage. Shannon Harbour,
two miles north of Banagher, in the Delvin territory,
was the scene of many a conflict between the septs
who lived on the banks of the Shannon, principally
the O'Maddens, Burkes and MacCoghlans. Ath-
Crochda, as the Four Masters call it, proved a veritable
ford of grief to many a brave warrior in those days,
as well as to many a lad and lass in more recent times.
A terrible battle is said to have been fought here in
CLONMACNOISE AND DELVIN 249
735 between the forces of Aodh 011am, King of
Ireland, and those of the King of Leinster. The Four
Masters relate the complete defeat of the Lagenians,
and an ancient poem sang with real pathos, '' The
great Shannon mourned that fight near the church of
Kieran of Clonmacnoise."
The obituary notice of Tighernach, concerning whom the late
Professor Eugene O'Curry in his Manuscript Materials of Ancient
Irish History, said that "not one of the countries of northern Europe
can exhibit an historian of equal antiquity, learning and judgment with
Tighernach," is thus given in the Chronicum Scotorum, a.d. 1088.
" Tigernach Ua Braoin of the Siol Muireadhaigh Comarba of Ciaran of
Cluain-mic-nois and of Coman died." There are seven copies of these
annals, two in the Bodleian, two in the Royal Irish Academy, one in
Trinity College, and two inferior ones in the British Museum. Dr.
O'Conor, who collected the MSS,, held that " no good edition of
Tighernach can be founded on any copy in the British isles ; for that
of Dublin, and all those hitherto discovered, are founded on the Oxford
MS. which is imperfect and corrupted by the ignorance of its tran-
scriber." Tighernach dates Irish history from the time of Cimbaoth
and the founding of Emania — " Omnia monumenta Scotorum usque
Cimbaoth incerta erant." This was about 300 B.C. The annals were
continued doubtless by other members of the fraternity down to the
year 1407, more than three hundred years after his own death.
Augustin MacGrady, " a canon of the canons of the Island of the
Saints, a Saoi (Doctor) during his life, in divine and worldly wisdom,
in literature, in history, and in various other sciences in like manner,
and the Ollamh (professor) of good oratory, of western Europe, helped
to compile this book until 1405, according to the entry for that year in
the Annals. Some other member of the community carried it on to
1407. And our first great Irish historian Tigernach is not to be for-
gotten. Many critics, Stillingfleet, Innes and others, commend his
historical judgment and wide scholarship. He cites Euscbius, Orosius,
Africanus, Bede, Jerome, Josephus, and had a good knowledge of the
Hebrew text, which he compared with the Septuagent version.
CHAPTER XVII.
More Recent Events in the County.
A short sketch of the more notable events that took
place in the King's County after the subjugation of
the Irish septs may prove interesting. On the 22nd
of June, 1620. an order was made out by the Lord
Chancellor giving Sir Laurence Parsons possession of
"the castle and fort- village " and land of Birr, and
converting the said land into the Manor of Parsons-
town. On the 7th of July Sir Laurence was put into
possession by the High Sheriff, Captain Francis
Acland. In November of the same year he obtained
a grant of a Tuesday market and two fairs to be held
in Birr on the festivals of S. Mark and S. Andrew.
This was doubtless done in emulation of Sir John
MacCoghlan who had obtained a grant in 161 2 to hold
a market on Thursdays in Banagher. In those days
a sheep cost three shillings and fourpence, and a
quarter of beef, four shillings and sixpence. The
O'Carrolls having tried in vain to be reinstated, Sir
Laurence proceeded to give leases to about sixty
persons, Irish and English. Some years afterwards
the famous Bigo factory of glass was established in
the Castle of Clonoghill, the ruins of which are at
Syngefield, the residence of Sir Francis Synge,
Bart. Molyneux, in his Natural Histojy of Tr eland,
states that '' from this place Dublin was furnished
with all sorts of window and drinking glasses. One
part of the materials, viz., the sand, they had out of
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 2 si
England ; the other, to wit, the ashes, they made in
the place of ash tree, and used no other. The
chiefest difficulty was to get the clay pots to melt the
materials in. This they had out of the north." This
factory did good work for some years. Remains of
an ancient glass-house with broken crucibles and glass
were found at Clonbrone, near Clonoghill, where St.
Canice is said to have retired for meditation, and
where in 1 848 the skull of a bear was found at a depth
of six feet among fallen trees of bog-oak by men
making a new channel for the Camcor River. This
discovery helps us to recreate the surroundings of
those early saints, Kiaran and Canice, of Saigher, who
lived in the centre of woods where deer and bear and
wolf, as the townland of Breagmore or "great wolf"
shows, abounded.
Sir Laurence Parsons made several ordinances for
the improvement of the town of Birr. In 1626 he
made a rule for the paving and cleaning of Birr in
which he stated : " Since I am at great charges in
digginge and bringinge of stones, which I intend to
have layed in the middest of the streete onely, to serve
for common passage, therefore it is the least that the
inhabitants can doe to pave xii foote broade as well
before theire houses as alsoe so longe and as farr as
theire houses yards gardens or plotts doe reach and
touch upon the streete, still carryinge the pavement
twelve foote broade. This to bee done at the tenants
charge both for stones gravell and workmanship."
The same ordinance forbade the casting of any
** rubbidge filth or sweepings into the forestreete."
For every such offence the constable was to levy four
pence sterling. Another ordinance for the regulation
252 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
of drinking houses made in the same year shows the
ver}^ modern ideas of the new owner of Birr. It
commenced with a recital of the evils caused by allow-
ing young women to '' draw ale and beare," and
continued in these terms : *' Therefore I do ordayne
that henceforwards noe single woman other than
hired servants for meate drinke and wages or clothes,
shall draw any ale or beare, or keepe vittling in this
towne, uppon payne to be sett in the stocks by the con-
stable for 3 whole markett dayes, one after another,
and those which retaine suche in their houses to paie
XX d. sterling for each default ; to be levied by the
constable and serjant Lewis Jones for repayring the
church and bridg of this towne." The repairs here
referred to consisted probably of the erecting of the
square tower or belfry of the old church. It would
be well, indeed, for the whole country if this ordin-
ance concerning the sale of alcohol were the law of the
land.
This enlightened landlord also insisted on his
tenants having stone chimneys in their houses owing
to the fearefuU experience that many townes and
villages have binn consumed by fire in divers parts of
this realme and occasioned thorowe fires made without
chimneys." Nor did he neglect the education of his
tenants. For in 1626 he presented a petition to the
Lord Deputy Falkland requesting that 200 acres of
unallotted land in Fearcall might be granted for the
use of the schoolmaster of the town of Birr, ''who
teacheth the youth of that countrey to the great
good thereof."
In 1 64 1 the town was attacked by the insurgents
under Colonel Moore. Mr. William Parsons, who
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 253
had been appointed Governor of Ely O'CarroU and of
Birr Castle, defended it with the help of his own tenants
and Captain Coote's infantry. The besieged were
reduced to great distress, being compelled to eat cats
and dogs and horseflesh. They were, however,
relieved by Sir Thomas Lucas, Sir Charles Coote, and
Sir Richard Grenville, with six troops of dragoons who
had to make their way through the woods of Moun-
trath. The next year (1643) General Preston of the
Roman Confederate Forces, who were sworn to bear
allegiance to Charles I. and his successors, and to
undo the work of the Reformation, attacked the town
with a strong force. After a siege of two days the
garrison, who were greatly outnumbered, surrendered,
and were allowed to march out with their arms, half
their plate, and money, all their books, papers, and
manuscripts, and as much provisions as they could
carry. This was on the 20th of January, 1642. The
articles of agreement make mention of Captain Coote,
Captain Oliver Darcy, and Lieutenant James Malone.
One item is of interest : " It is agreed that the Lady
Philips and the Lady Parsons shall have each of
them two pair of sheets, and the Governor's lady and
Captain Coote's lady shall have each of them two
pair of sheets, a pair of pillow beers, and all their
clothes of linen and woollen, with their trunk and
chest to carry them in, and two feather beds for his
children, and the red bed that is laced with willow-
coloured lace, with its furniture."
In return for these honourable terms Mr. Parsons
promised to use his interest with the Lord Justice and
Council for the release of " Nicholas Egan and
Catherine Preston, his wife, with her sister, a religious
254 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
woman." The latter were evidently relations of the
General. Lord Castlehaven in his Meuwirs states that
he went into Birr to see the garrison march out, and
entered a large room full of men and women of
quality who besought him as an Englishman to bring
them safely to their friends, as they would have a
march of two days through the woods of Hy Regan
— the territory of the O'Dunnes still in the possession
of the Dunnes of Brittas — before they could reach
Athy, the nearest friendly garrison. " I went," he
says, " therefore to the general immediately, and got
to be commander of their convoy, and to make sure,
I called out three hundred foot and two hundred
horse, in whom I had much confidence, and carried
off the people, who were at least eight hundred,' men,
women, and children, and though sometimes attacked,
I delivered them, with their luggage,safe to their friends."
After the surrender of Birr Preston marched
against Banagher, then called Fortfalkland — " a place
of strength enough to have held out against him,
longer than he could have staid in that season of the
year," as Dr. Warner wrote in his History of the
Rebellion and Civil War iu Ireland.
But in consequence of the favourable terms granted
to the garrison of Birr, and to avoid falling into worse
hands, Lord Castlesteward, the Governor, capitulated
on the understanding that he and all his people
should be conveyed to the Fort of Galway. General
Preston, accordingly, sent two companies with them
as guard, but Colonel Burke, Lieutenant-General of
the Roman Catholic Confederates, made them return
to the Castle of Athlone, permitting the Governor
and a few attendants to pass.
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 255
Birr remained in the hands of the Confederates
until 1650. General Preston, brother of Lord Gor-
manstown, one of the Lords of the Pale, and one of
the moderate party of the Confederates, had occupied
the town for some years as Commander of their
forces in Leinster. Owing to a division created in
these forces by the action of the Papal Nuncio,
Rinuncini, who opposed the treaty between Ormonde,
the head of the Protestant party in Ireland, and the
Confederates signed on the 28th of March at Kilkenny,
he had held aloof for some time. Rinuncini suc-
ceeded admirably in his purpose of sowing discord
among the two political parties of Irishmen, who, if
united, could have saved the country from the Crom-
wellian invasion. He was supported by Owen
O'Neill, the rival of Preston, who attacked Birr in
1648, during Preston's absence, but was beaten off
by one of the latter's officers. In 1650 Ireton, who
had been appointed to command the Republican
forces in Ireland by Cromwell, marched against
Athlone, and leaving Sir Charles Coote to take it,
advanced on Birr which the enemy had burned and
abandoned on his approach. Ireton continued his
marched on Limerick, leaving a garrison in Birr.
But shortly afterwards the Marquis of Clanricarde
attempted to relieve the town, and took the two
castles, but was forced to raise the siege on the
arrival of Colonel Axtell, the Governor of Kilkenny,
who pursued him to Meelick, and defeated him with
great loss.
The town of Birr had rest now from war's alarms
for some years and prospered in trade and com-
merce. But in 1688 the country was infested by
256 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
robber bands called Rapparees, under one Fannin.
The Birr tenants sought safety within the walls of
the Castle. Colonel Oxburgh reported the matter
to Lord Tyrconnell, the Lord Lieutenant, making it
appear that Sir Laurence Parsons was garrisoning
the town against James II. Tyrconnell ordered the
officious officer to occupy the place in the name of
the king. Oxburgh set out forthwith against
Birr and demanded possession of the castle. This
was refused until a communication should be received
from Tyrconnell, and the siege began, to end in a
surrender after some days. On this occasion the
people in the castle were allowed to depart, with the
exception of Sir Laurence Parsons and five of his
tenants, who were thrown into prison and charged
with high treason in keeping the garrison against
the king. Mr. Jonathan Darby and his brother,
John, were also arrested and charged with the same
offence for their gallant rescue of Captain Coote.
The prisoners were tried at the Philipstown Assizes
on the 30th of March, 1689, before Sir Henry Lynch,
who sentenced Sir Laurence, Jonathan Darby, and
James Rasco to be '' hanged, drawn, and quartered."
With great difficulty the convicted men obtained a
reprieve for a month. Sir Laurence was sent back
under military escort to Birr, and kept in prison
until the 2nd April, 1690, and was duly attainted by
the Dublin Parliament of James II. In the mean-
time Colonel Oxburgh, who was a member for King's
County, with two of his companies were quartered
in the castle, and the remaining twenty in the town of
Birr. The Roman priest, Rev. Thomas Kennedy,
was put in possession of the Glebe and tithes of the
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 257
parish by Garrett Trant, his Majesty's Receiver, in
the absence of the Rector, the Rev. Richard Crump.
In November 28th of the same year (1689) Colonel
Oxburgh's officers took the key of the Church from
the Clerk of the Parish and handed it over to the
Roman Catholic clergyman, who held a service of
reconsecration in the Church and celebrated Mass
there until the Battle of the Boyne. Colonel Sarsfield,
a gallant and kindly officer, having been sent to
disband some of the soldiers of Oxburgh, who had
become " Rapparees," held a review in the fields
near Birr, and disbanded nine companies. He then
proceeded to Portumna, where he disbanded forty-
three companies of Lord Galway's army, who at once
swelled the ranks of the Rapparees.
Oxburgh was then appointed Provost Marshall of
the King's County, and signalized his appointment
by the erection of a gallows, with three ropes in the
market place of Birr, which was supposed to be
intended for the three prisoners, Sir Laurence, Jonathan
Darby, and James Roscoe. Having been erected on
May-Day, 1689, it was called " Colonel Oxburgh's
Maypole." On the 2nd of April an order came from
James to Terence Coghlan, the High Sheriff, to
bring these men to Dublin. This they reached
after four day's travel, and were at once thrown
into prison. But their release was at hand. For the
news of the victory of William, brought to the Castle
by no less a person than James himself, caused the
doors to be thrown open for all the political prisoners
in that city. Sir Laurence was appointed High
Sheriff of the King's County by King William's
Government, and also a Commissioner of Array ; the
2 58 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
other Commisioners, many of whom have representa-
tives still in the county, being John Baldwin, Daniel
Gahan, William Purefoy, Samuel Rolls, Hector
Vaughan, John Weaver, Jonathan, Darby, Humphrey
Minchin, Archibald Adaire, Jeffrey Lyons, John
Reading, and Richard Warburton.
After some months an attack was made upon Birr
by Sarsfield, who was repulsed by General Douglas
and fell back beyond the Shannon. After the battle
of Aughrim the victorious army passed through Birr
on its way to Limerick, leaving the sick and wounded
in the Castle. The Birr garrison then sallied forth
and took possession of the fort of Banagher and
Cloghan Castle, Lieutenant Archibald Armstrong
being left in charge of the latter place.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century the
Volunteer Movement spread through Ireland which
had been drained of its military forces by the
American War. A volunteer corps was accordingly
formed in the King's County. The Parsojistown
Loyal Tndependejits were raised in Birr and associated
on the 15th of February, 1776. Their uniform was
scarlet, faced with black, and their Colonel was Sir
William Parsons, Bart., with Major L. Parsons,
Captain B. B. Warburton, Lieutenants Treacy and
Kearney. Edenderry Union was associated on May
1st, 1777. Their uniform was the same, and their
officers, Captains Shaw Cartland and Digby Berkeley.
The Barony Rangers were associated on March 17th,
1778 ; their uniform was the same; and their officers
were Colonel Andrew Armstrong and Captain Robert
Shervington.
The Tullaniore True Blues were raised in October
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 259
of the same year. Their uniform was scarlet faced
with blue, and their colonel, Charles William Bury,
afterwards Earl of Charleville. The Mountain Rangers
were associated in August of 1779. They were raised
in Kinnetty by Colonel Thomas Bernard, George
Clarke being major, and John Drought captain, ances-
tor of Captain Drought, D.L., of Letty brook. Their
uniform was scarlet with black facings. The Dunkerrin
Volunteers were associated in June of 1779. Their
colonel was James Frank Rolleston, who is represented
by Major Rolleston, D.L., of Franckfort Castle, Dun-
kerrin. The Eglish Rangers were associated in August,
1779. Their Major was Thomas Berry, their captain,
John Drought, and their lieutenant, J. C. Clarke. The
Leap Independents were raised in 1780 by their colonel,
Jonathan Darby, ancestor of the present Mr. Jonathan
Darby, D.L., of Leap Castle. The majority of these
officers of the Volunteers have representatives among
the gentry of the county, though some names have
completely passed away. Meetings were held in Birr
in 1 78 1 and 1782, which were attended by the delegates
of these corps, and on the 20th September, 1784, a
general review was held by Sir William Parsons at
Woodfield near Birr. The right wing consisted of
the Offerlane Blues under Colonel Flood, the Lorrha
Rangers under Captain Firman, and the Clanrickarde
Chasseurs under Colonel O' Moore. The centre, com-
manded by Colonel Richard Croasdaile, was composed
of the Mountmellick Infantry under Lord Carlow, the
Eglish Rangers under Major Berry, the Maryborough
Fusiliers under Sir John Parnell, and the Eyrecourt
Buffs under Colonel Giles Eyre. While the left wing,
commanded by Colonel Thomas Bernard, great-
26o THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
grandfather of Mrs. Caufield French of Castle Bernard,
consisted of the Mountain Rangers, the Parsonstown
Grenadiers, and artillery, and the Clanrickarde Brigade.
This must have been a very gallant display, as the
appointments and uniforms of the Volunteers left
nothing to be desired.
The Volunteers were at this time some fifty thousand
strong, and began to exert an irresistible influence
upon the Government for the good of the country.
In Dublin they held an imposing muster in College
Green in support of Grattan's demand for free trade
for Ireland, when two field-pieces were drawn up in
front of King William's statue, labelled " Free trade
or this." Lord North's Government, powerless to
cope with such armed arguments, made the required
concessions, and Ireland was permitted the free export
of her wool and glass, the free importation of foreign
hops, and trade with the " Levant Seas " and the
English colonies upon the same terms as Great Britain.
These concessions were wrested from the British
Government by the Protestant nobility, gentry and
yeomen of Ireland.
But the Volunteers had yet another work to do for
Ireland. The Dublin Volunteer Corps opposed the
perpetual Mutiny Act, which they declared was " an
undermining of the constitution and an infringement
of liberty." Other Volunteer Corps passed a similar
resolution. On February 15th, 1782, 242 delegates
representing 143 corps in Ulster, met in the church of
Dungannon, under the presidency of Lord Charlemont,
and passed thirteen resolutions in favour of legislative
reform. On the 3rd of September, 1781, the delegates
of the King's County Corps, under the presidency of
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 261
Colonel Rolleston, had passed several resolutions
against the perpetual Mutiny Act, Poynings' Law, and
other unconstitutional measures. In consequence of
the determined attitude of the Volunteers Lord North
resigned, and the new Ministry allowed the repeal of
6 George I., and Poynings' Law, limited the Mutiny
Act to two years, granted a Habeas Corpus Act to
Ireland, and other measures of reform. The Marriages
of Protestant Dissenters — a measure only granted to
England in 1836 — were declared valid; various disa-
bilities were removed from the Roman Catholics, and
the penal laws were repealed.
As Grattan remarked in his great speech in the
Irish Parliament on the i6th April, 1782 : " It was not
the sword of the volunteer, nor his muster, nor his
spirit, nor his promptitude to put down accidental
disturbance or public disorder, nor his unblamed and
distinguished deportment. This was much, but there
was more than this. The upper orders, the property
and the abilities of the country formed with the
volunteer, and the volunteer had sense enough to obey
them." The volunteer movement lost its prestige and
influence in 1784. But it had asserted the claims of
Ireland and prepared the way for Roman Catholic
Emancipation in perhaps the most agitated times the
country has known. And in this movement it is
gratifying to learn that the Protestant gentry and
yeomen of King's County played no mean part. And
they maintained the same traditions in the militia ^ of
1 The officers of the King's County Militia (19th) in 1809 were :—
Col. H. P. L'Estrange (1798) ; Lt.-Cols. II. R. Stepney, J. W. Atkin-
son ; Majors C. F. L'Estrange, C. Baldwin ; Capts. G. Marsh, R.
O'Connor, H. O'Connor, T. Hobbs, J. Fitzsimmons, James Drought,
H. Croasdaile, D. Cuolahan ; Lieuts. R. Warburton, J Lancaster,
262 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
the county which was presently formed. During the
disturbances of 1798 the district around Birr was
comparatively quiet.
One terrible murder was committed at Boveen near
Sharavogue, the residence of the Earl of Huntingdon,
when Mr. Thomas Doolan was done to death in a
very callous manner. On Ash Wednesday, 1797, a
number of men with blackened faces entered the room
where the family were at dinner, and murdered the
unfortunate man before the eyes of his wife and child-
ren, and decamped with the plate. Mr. Waller of
Finnoe was murdered in the same way in more recent
times. A pantry boy, however, witnessed the deed
through a chink in the wall, and sixteen men were
tried at Philipstown Assizes, with the result that two
of them were executed at Newtown, near Birr, before
their own doors
In 1800 a meeting of magistrates was convened in
Birr to protest against the Union. They met in the
old market house, but were compelled to return to
Bigoe Cuolahan, F. King, G. Sharpe, W. Bowling, J- Howard, J.
L' Estrange, S. G. Pilkington, John Acres, W. Hodson, R. M'Clain,
J. W. Watson, H. M. Ryves, John Falkner, John Abbot, Walter
Strong, John Wetherall ; Ensigns T. B. Watson, H. Howard, D.
Smith, Joseph Maxwell, Paymaster R. T. Eraser, Adjutant A.
L' Estrange, Surgeon T. Waters, and T. McDonough, Quartermaster
T. Howard. Of these officers there are still many representatives in
the King's County. The regiment was called the 19th, but is now
known as the 3rd Batt. Royal Canadians, Prince of Wales's Leinster
Regiment. The ist and 2nd battalions are the looth and the 109th,
and the 4th and 5th are the Queen's County and Meath Militia. In
1889 they were commanded by Lieut,-CoL R. G. Cosby ; in 1905 by
Lieut. Col. Luttman-Johnson, and in 1908 by Col. Barry, D.S.O., with
Lieut.-Col. Gamble, of Derrinboy, second in command. The present
Earl of Huntingdon and his grandfather, Col. Westenra, were con-
nected with the battalion for several years. The late Col. Thomas
Bernard, of Castle Bernard, H.M.L. for King's County, was colonel
for many years, and was succeeded in command by his brother,
Richard Wellesley, Col, Thomas remaining full colonel.
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 263
their homes by Major Rogers, who was In command
of the artillery, and Jonathan Darby, High Sheriff!
To shift the scene to Tullamore in 1808 we read of
an exciting encounter that took place between the
cavalry and infantry of the German legion quartered
in that town and light brigade of Irish militia. The
Irish charged the Germans with fixed bayonets and
put them to a complete rout. A monument to
Frederick Baron Oldenhausen, a German dragoon
officer, in the graveyard of Kilcrutten, commemorates
the conflict. In 1829 a duel was fought between John
Doolan of Shinrone, and William Sadleir of Scalaheen,
Tipperary, Doolan's second being William McDonough
of Wilmount, County Galway. He was challenged
on the ground by David Davis, who insisted that they
should fight across a handkerchief. It appears that
McDonough fired and killed Davis, for which he was
duly tried at Philipstown Assizes, and was acquitted.
In 1846 the famous telescope was completed at Birr
under the direction of the Earl of Rosse, and was
improved by the late earl, a man of scientific and
mechanical tastes. The King's County has since lived
up to- the traditions thus created, the scientific work
of the brothers Stoney, Johnstone and Bindon, both
F.R.S., who were born in Oakley Park in Sierkieran
Parish, and of the Hon. Clere Parsons, of turbine
fame, being well known to all the world. In 1853,
May 5th, the first public telegram from Birr was
published in Saunders Newsletter in Dublin. It was
to the effect that the fair of that date was one of the
best ever held in Birr. Banagher horse fair is too
widely known to require mention. That such may
ever be the character of our fairs and markets, and
2 64 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
that our sons may worthily maintain the traditions of
the past, in promoting the agricultural welfare of our
country and the scientific interests of the world, is a
prayer to which Irishmen of every religious creed and
political faith will fervently say " Amen."
But that consummation can only be achieved by a
complete reform of our system of economy. Even the
casual observer must see that the weakness of Ireland
is its contempt for industry on the one hand, and its
distrust of industry on the other, whereby the labourer
and the employer fail to effect such a combination as
would render the land productive and enterprise suc-
cessful. Our country is being steadily depleted of its
most vigorous toilers, and nought is done to fill up
the gap made by the exodus or to check that exodus.
On the contrary, the young and ambitious, the indus-
trious and intelligent, have every worldly inducement
to abandon the homeland that will not support,
employ, or educate them in such a way that they can
earn a living therein, and to seek new fields of industry
in the far west. Sectarian differences and mutual
distrust impede education and economy at every point.
The natural result is that the nation is slowly dying ;
its energies are decaying, its children are departing,
its trade is depressed, its labour is degraded and
its tillage is declining, while the disabilities of the
employer, the farmer, and the labourer, are increasing
every year owing to the mismanagement of our material
resources, the inefficient control of the work, and the
unreliable character of the workman. Labour requires
to be reorganised on an ethical basis ; education must
be made more practical in its aims ; capital must
become more disinterested in its investments. The
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 265
national decay is a proof of the unwisdom of spending
one's life in the pursuit of political ideals and of the
necessity of facing the facts of actual life. An Act
of Parliament is not the panacea for a state of things
created by too much eloquence and too little diligence,
but a regeneration of the national spirit is. An
exchange of landlords will not raise the national credit
unless it is followed by a change of character. The
work of reform is no longer hampered by the inter-
tribal warfare or oppressive statutes described in the
preceding pages. The Irish people have their national
destiny in their own hands ; they must work out their
own salvation themselves without the assistance of
Parliament. There are no longer grievances to be
redressed, but there is character to be reformed. And
if the national life is to be renewed, the principles of
economy must be studied and a new spirit of enter-
prise infused.
Is it sound economy to have a premium on idleness
and endeavour at a discount, to banish the employer
and to abolish sport ; to allow foreign produce and
manufactures to compete on equal terms with our own
in every market ; to fill our baronies with unemployed
labourers struggling with starvation on half an acre
of ground ; and to imagine that all the ills our country
has inherited can be removed by the creation of so-
called '' economic " holdings for men, who have no
capital to buy stock or intention to till the soil ? The
result is as evident, as it is inevitable, namely, that the
thrifty, the temperate and well-to-do will gradually
acquire the farms of the dilatory, the impecunious
and the intemperate.
It does not pay in the long run to allow the land to
266 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
become impoverished, to take hay crop after hay crop
from the same field, to purchase second-rate farming
implements and machines made in America because
cheaper, to buy the stuff dumped down by foreign
countries in our markets, to use inferior seed and
manures, to live on credit, and to trust that Provi-
dence will correct our mistakes and pay our debts.
Change of ownership can not of itself improve
the land — the only security of our national life —
unless the new landlords prove industrious themselves,
and capable of employing and controlling labour.
Our economic efficiency depending on the co-operation
of land, labour and capital, the three agents of pro-
duction, peasant ownership can lead to no lasting bene-
fit so long as agricultural produce is unprotected, the
capitalist discouraged and the labourer dismissed.
On the one hand, we have stately asylums for the
insane, all too small for the increasing demand, and
spacious unions for the inane, maintained by a ruinous
tax on the land for the accommodation of casuals, too
lazy to dig but not ashamed to beg, and children who
become demoralised by their surroundings — for the
really deserving poor prefer " out-door relief," and the
aged poor are to receive pensions nominally from the
State, in reality from another iniquitous tax on the
land — while, on the other hand, we see universal signs
of decay and decline. Over every village a ruined
mill, gaunt spectre of a crushed enterprise, throws its
dark shadow, and makes its mute appeal to Ireland
to protect its industry and to defend its trade against
the ruthless invader — not the Saxon this time — and
every unjust attempt to undersell and monopolise.
One may well ask — Is it sanity to allow foreign
MORE RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTY 267
potatoes and bacon to compete on equal terms with our
own even in pig-producing and potato-growing dis-
tricts ? Is it sanity to allow the parasites, the drones
and the weak-minded to multiply, and to permit the
able-bodied and industrious to be diminished if they
will not migrate ? It seems, indeed, to be the fate of
Irish industry to be starved out by its " Cosherers and
Fait-neants" — of whom Petty complained in 1691 —
men who demand support, but despise work ? Is it
sanity to imagine that we can live by the land alone,
and that the State must manage everything— railways,
factories, and co-operative stores ? The improvement
effected in the early part of the seventeenth century
by Sir Lawrence Parsons, described in this chapter, is
a proof that reform of industry is possible if the men
be found capable of initiating, capitalizing and con-
trolling it. A social regeneration would follow the
resuscitation of some of those industries mentioned in
these pages, in which we were once the dreaded rival
of England. When those ruined mills, which once
gave employment to the country-side, hum once more
with the sound of machinery ; when those expensive
workhouses are converted into homes for workers;
when one quarter of the area of the country is tilled ;
when the raised character of the labourer encourages
capitalists to invest in home securities and to combine
to develop national industries, and when the national
produce receives State protection, then industrial ineffi-
ciency and agricultural depression will no longer act as
a double brake upon the wheels of progress, and our
economic salvation shall be accomplished.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Irish Customs and Curiosities.
Ireland was ever in an unsettled state. This was
due in a large measure to the number of warlike
septs who regarded each other with feelings of mutual
hatred and distrust, and had seldom an entente
cordiale with one another for any length of time.
This is not to be ascribed altogether to the inbred
love of fighting in the Irish, but also to the unsettled
state of life and property within the borders of the
various septs. There were two customs connected
with the inheritance of land which were answerable
for this unrest. In the first place, when the chieftain
died it did not follow as a matter of course that his
eldest son or the next-of-kin succeeded ; but the tanist
was often selected who could secure his election by
force of arms. And by the law of gavelkind the
other tenantries were divided among all his sons,
legitimate and illegitimate. Then came in the other
custom, often acting contrary to this and causing
grievous complications, of the chief claiming to inherit
the land of his tenant who died during his office. It
rs little more than a hundred years since one of the
old chieftains of King's County died who used to
insist on this right. He was Thomas Coghlan, M.P.
Banagher, and the last of the MacCoghlans " of the
Fair Castles" of Delvin Ahra, commonly known as
" the Maw " who has already been described. He
levied the fines of Mortmain when a vassal died,
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 269
become heir of the defunct farmer, settled points of
law — the Brehon Code — with his whip, and received
his rents partly in kind and partly in money. He
died so recently as 1790. These two customs
made life and property uncertain and are probably
answerable for the fact that " though the Irishry," as
Sir John Davis writes {Ii^eland befoj^e 1603, p. 291),
" be a nation of great antiquity and wanted neither
wit nor valour, and though they had received the
Christian faith above 1,200 }'ears since and were lovers
of music, poetry and all kinds of learning, and pos-
sessed a law abounding with all things necessary for
the civil life. . . . They did never build houses
of brick or stone, some poor religious houses excepted,
before the reign of Henry H." He continues :
** Neither did they plant gardens or orchards or
inclose or improve their lands or live together in
settled villages or towns or make any provision for
posterity."
The same writer also condemns severely the custom
of coyne and livery or the practice of enforcing food
and fodder for one's soldiers. " This most wicked and
most mischievous extortion was originally Irish ; for
the chiefs used to lay bonaght upon their people and
never gave their soldiers any other pay. But when
the English lords had learned it they used it with
more insolency and made it more intolerable ; for the
oppression was not temporary or limited either to
place or time, but because there was everywhere a
continual war either offensive or defensive, and every
lord of a country and every marcher made war and
peace at pleasure ; it became universal and perpetual,
and indeed was the most heavy oppression that was
270 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
ever used in any Christian country." The Irish
custom to which Sir John Davis, who advocates a
strong English Government, refers was called Bonag/it,
and was of two kinds — the greater and the less, the
greater being free quarters at discretion or in specie,
while the less v/as commutation for it in money or
food. The Irish gentry were rather inclined to live
upon their tenants and to enjoy the do/ce far 7iie?ite of
country life and produce. By the law of gavelkind
every son of a landed proprietor was to inherit a
portion of the estate ; and their portion was to be
divided between their sons in their turn, so that
many of the large estates would be reduced in time to
the proverbial " three acres and a cow." These
people considered trade or occupation of any kind
degrading to any gentleman. Accordingly, they did
no work, but lived by their evils and on their people.
Sir John Davis refers to this practise of coshering in
the passage — " They chose rather to live by theft,
extortion, or coshermg than seek any better fortune
abroad, which increased their septs and surnames
into such numbers that there are not found in any
kingdom of Europe so many gentlemen of one blood,
family, and surname, as the O'Neills in Ulster, the
Burkes, in Connaught and the Geraldines in Munster
and Leinster."
By this incessant coshering upon the tenants the
lords did literally eat them out of hearth and home,
so that the saying, " Devour me but defend me "
passed into a proverb, and owing to the oppressions
of the Desmonds, the Irish proverb, ''quod me alit
extinguit " was used.
While his other cessings of the kern called
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 271
Kernety, and his privileges, "cuttings, tallages, or
spendings, high or low at pleasure," made him a
veritable tyrant and his tenant a very slave. This
incessant billeting of half-savage kerne and gallow-
glasses on farmers, which was practised by English
and Irish alike in Ireland, caused many freeholders
to sell their property and betake themselves to a better
ordered realm. While those who remained had lost
all heart for work and interest in labour, for the fruit
of a year's toil might be consumed by these unwel-
come visitors in one night, and consequently "became
idle and lookers-on, expecting the event of those
miseries and evil times," that is, waiting like Micawber
for something to turn up. Such a state of affairs
made them a distinctly crafty people.
It was probably from this oppressed class, as well
as from the wild sons of decayed gentry that the
three kinds of neer-do-weel, " the Horseboys, Carrows
and Jesters," of whom Spenser writes were recruited.
The horseboys were the predecessors of the hostlers,
the carrows were ''a kind of people who wander up
and down to gentlemen's houses, living upon cards
and dice, the which, though they have little or
nothing of their own, yet they will play for much
money, which if they win, they waste most lightly,
and if they lose, they pay as slenderly, but make
recompense with one stealth or another;" while the
jesters were " notable rogues, not only partakers of
many stealths, but privy to many traitorous practices,
and common news-carriers, with desire whereof you
would wonder how much the Irish are fed, for they
used commonly to send up and down for news, and
if any meet with another, his second word is — what
272 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
news ? " Sir John Davis also comments upon this
trait which he ascribes to indolence. "This idleness,"
he writes, " make the Irish the most inquisitive
people after news of any nation in the world." Like
the Athenians of old the Irish spent "their time in
nothing else but either to tell or hear some new
thing." The news-carriers, " Skelaghs " (which con-
nected with Scelaidhe, historian) who then performed
the office of the Morfiing Post and the Evening
Telegraph, were condemned by the Statute of Kilkenny
because they were thought to raise trouble among the
people, but they still continued to exist.
The poets of Spenser's time were also degraded
by the prevailing spirit of licence and cunning so that
they ceased to sing of themes that inspired feelings of
virtue and honour, but rather praised the deeds
of the lawless and the desperate and incited the
young and foolish like Silken Thomas to similar acts
of outrage and folly. Spenser ( View of the State of
Ireland, p. 123) describes the hero of one of these
political outbursts. He was no milksop, but spent
his days in arms and valiant enterprises. He never
ate his meat until his sword had won it. He did
not spend his nights under his mantle in a cabin,
but kept others awake to defend their lives, while
the flames of their burning dwellings were his light
by night. His music was not the harp or the soft
lays of love, but the clash of arms and the cries
of the terrified. At last he died, not bewailed of
many, but causing many to wail, who had at great
cost procured his death. In such terms which were
thought commendatory by the Irish, this swash-
buckler is described.
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 273
The mantle^ was the favourite garment among the
Irish, as the ^oo;-a was among the Romans. It served
as a covering both by day and by night. When
Grace O'Malley went to Elizabeth's Court she wore
a loose mantle which completely enveloped her hand-
some person, covered her head and concealed her
yellow petticoat. Such a garment when gracefully
folded make a picturesque figure. But the English
Government regarded it askance. For, as Spenser
writes — " Any man disposed to mischief or villainy
may under his mantle which is close-hooded over
his head, go privily armed, without suspicion of any
cover (his head concealed, he is unknown), neither is
his pistol or skein (knife) seen, which he holds in
readiness." The mantle was also a protection against
the gnats which " doe more annoy the naked rebels,
whilst they keep the woodes and doe more sharply
wound them than all their enemies' swords or spears,"
and also formed an effective defence when wrapped
several times around the left arm against a sword
cut. Spenser, however, thought the law against the
wearing of the Irish apparel a hardship. " And were
there better to be had," he writes ; " yet these were
fittest to be used — as namely the mantle in travelling,
because there be no inns where meet bedding may be
* On one historic occasion the mantle served as the protecting aegis of
Ireland. It was when Turgesius the brutal Norse conqueror, demanded
the daughter of O'Melaghiin, the King of Meath, and she was sent to
the palace of the tyrant, accompanied by sixteen beautiful youths, dis-
guised as women, and armed with the Irish skean. As the foreigner
hastened to embrace the princess, her companions threw aside their loose
gowns, and having put the attendants of Turgesius to the sword, made
him prisoner and bound him, and a few days after the villain was thrown
by command of the king, bound as he was into the waters of Loch
Annin, where he embraced death. The whole story is well told in.
Heating's History of Ireland, under the date 879.
2 74 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
had, so that his mantle then serves him for his bed.
Then the leather jacket, in journeying and camping,
for that is fittest to be under his shirt of mail and to
cover his trouse (trousers) on horseback."
Although he seems to have admired the saffron-
coloured skirts and mantles which the Irishmen wore,
and which has been duly proscribed by Act of Parlia-
ment, Spenser had no weakness whatever for the
glibbs or hideous bush of hair often dragged down
over the brow and serving effectually to conceal his
features ; and which was so " monstrously disguising "
that a man's thievish face would hardly be discovered.
The glibbs was not only cultivated for the purpose of
disguise, but also for the sake of defence. Spenser
remarks that the Irish went '' to battle encased with
armour, trusting to their thick glibbs which they say
will sometimes bear off a good stroke."
The same writer in his View of the State of Ireland
describes the Irish horseman comparing his armour
and array with that of Sir Topas, knight and slayer
of giants, whose complexion was like scarlet and
whose hair was like saffron.
The passage in the Canterbury Tales is worthy of
citation :
He worthe ^ upon his steede gray,
And in his hand a launcegay —
A long sword by his side.
He didde ^ next his white lere
Of cloth of lake ^ fine and clear,
A breech and eke a shirt ;
And next his shirt an haketon,^
And over that an habergeon,*
^ Was mounted. "lance. * donned. * lawn. ^ a quilted
jacket. ^breastplate (hauberk),
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 275
For ' piercing of his heart : '
And over that a fine hauberk,^
Was all y- wrought of Jewes' werk.
Full strong it was of plate.
And over that his coat-armour.^
With reference to this description, Spenser writes :
" You may see the very fashion and manner of the
Irish horseman most truly set forth in his long hose,
his riding shoes of costly cord waine, his hacqueton
(or doublet), and his habergeon (coat of mail), with
all the rest thereunto belonging." And " the furniture
of his horse, his strong brass bit, his sliding reins, his
shank-pillion (or saddle-pad) without stirrups, his
manner of mounting, his fashion of riding, his charging
of his spear aloft above his head, and the form of his
spear" — all these Spenser declares were introduced
by Englishmen into Ireland. There is, however, one
point of resemblance between the Irish horseman and
the gallant Sir Topas of Chaucer which escapes the
keen eye of Spenser : —
The colour of the knight's hair —
His hair, his beard were like saffron.
Saffron was the colour of the Irish horseman's
shirt. This deep yellow colour seems to have been the
national colour of the Emerald Isle.
Spenser also seems rather partial to the Irish
woman's dress ; and among other portions of femi-
nine millinery speaks of " their long-slieved smocks,
their half-slieved coats and their silken fillets,"
for which "they will devise some colour either of
necessity or of antiquity or of comeliness.'' He also
alludes to a peculiar kind of head-dress — " the great
1 to prevent. ^ coat of mail. ^ knight's tunic, bearing his coat of arms.
2 76 THE MIDLLND SEPTS AND THE PALE
linen roll which they wore round their head," which may
have been the predecessor of the white lace-frilled caps
much affected by our great-grandmothers, and worn
even in our times. It is not so long ago that two
ancient dames in the King's County had a small
argument which was concluded by one seizing the
white cap of the other, dragging it from off her grey
hairs and tearing the ruffles, of which there were
many yards, in pieces !
Campion (i 571) gives an interesting description of
the dress and appearance of the people. " Clean
men they are or skin, a red hue," he wTites, '' but of
themselves careless. The women are well-favoured,
clean-coloured, fair-handed, big and large, suffered
from their infancy to grow at will." He goes on to
say that " Linen shirts the rich do wear for wanton-
ness and bravery, w ith wide-hanging sleeves, plaited,
thirty yards are little enough for one of them. They
have now left their saffron and learned to wash their
shirts." ''Proud are they," he remarks, ''of long-
crisped glibbes and do nourish the same, with all their
cunning, to crop the front thereof they take it for a
notable piece of villainy." In another passage he
says " Some of them be richly plated, their ladies
are trimmed rather with massive jewels than with
garish apparel and it is considered a beauty in them
to be tall, round and fat."
In the tale of Etain, preserved in an eleventh century
MS. we have a fair representation of the Irish ideal
of beauty in the early times. The maiden's arms
were " as white as the snow of a single night, and
each of her cheeks were as rosy as the foxglove.
Even and small were the teeth in her head, and they
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 277
shone like pearls. Her eyes were as blue as a hyacinth,
her lips delicate and crimson ; very high, soft,
and white were her shoulders. Tender, polished,
and white were her wrists, her fingers long and of
great whiteness ; her nails were beautiful and pink.
White as snow, or as the foam of the wave was her
side ; long was it, slender, and soft as silk. Smooth
and white were her thighs ; her knees were round
and firm and white ; her ankles were as straight as
the rule of a carpenter. Her feet were slim and as
white as the ocean's foam ; evenly set were her eyes ;
her eyebrows were of a bluish black, such as ye
see upon the shell of a beetle. Never a maid fairer
than she or more worthy of love till then seen by
the eyes of men." It would be difficult to find a
more beautiful description of a beautiful woman than
this description of Etain in Dr. Leahy's Romance of
Ireland. There is a delicate and subtle refinement,
an aloofness from the sensual which makes one
think of a classic statue in pure and polished alabaster.
The ladies and gentlemen of the olden time gave
much attention to their nails. Crimson-coloured
nails were affected. '' I shall not crimson my nails,"
wails the unhappy Deirdre. While they dyed their
eyebrows black, and carefully combed out their long
tresses which were often elaborately curled. Their
garments were of many bright colours — and their
girdles richly ornamented. The people seemed thus
to be most careful of their persons and appearance.
The gentle courtesy of Cuchullin and Ferdia at the
Ford of Ferdia (Ardee) when these mortal foes kissed
each other before fighting, spoke words of kindness
and gentleness to each other during the intervals of the
2 78 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
fight, and exchanged healing ointments for their
wounds, is also a proof that the sentiment of chivalry
was as purely expressed in the noblest Irish life as it
was at the court of King Arthur. It is a great shock
to one's feelings to pass from these high, refined
standards of life to the pages of Fynes Moryson (1600)
and to read his charges of barbarity, indecency,
drunkenness and uncleanness against the Irish.
He tells us the Irish '' eat no flesh but that which
dies of disease or otherwise of itself." He says ''even
the lords and their wives drink at home till they be
drunk as beggars," and speaks of the " nasty filthiness
of the nation in general." The only word of praise
for ought Irish to be found in his pages is for Irish
whiskey — "The Irish a^ua vitae, vulgarly called
usquebaugh, is held the best in the world of that
kind, which is made also in England, but nothing so
good as that which is brought out of Ireland." He
seems to have been a connoisseur in this subject, for
he says the usquebaugh is preferred before our aq?/e
vitae^ '' because the mingling of raisins, fennel-seed,
and other things mitigating the heat and making the
teeth pleasant makes it less aflame." And the only
touch of humour in his description of filth and foul-
ness, in which he revels ad nauseam^ is his picture of
some Irish, who had obtained possession of some
sumpter horses, and found in the baggage " soap and
starch carried for our laundresses, but they thinking
them some dainty meats did eat them greedily, and
when they stuck in their teeth bitterly cursed the
gluttony of us English churls, for so they term us."
We do not go to Whitechapel to see how
the English live; we cannot believe that these
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 279
pictures are a fair representation of Irish life in those
days.
But to pass on to more agreeable topics, Spenser
had much to say in praise of the skill and courage of
these wild Irish troops — the martial predecessors of
the Dublin Fusiliers. " I have heard," he says, " some
great warriors say that in all the services which they
had seen abroad in foreign countries, they never saw
a more comely man than the Irishman, nor that
Cometh on more bravely in his charge ; neither is his
manner of mounting unseemly though he lacks
stirrups, but more ready than with stirrups, for in his
getting up his horse is still going whereby he gaineth
way."
With regard to their vigour and endurance he says
— " Yet sure they are very valiant and hardy, for the
most part great endurers of cold, labour, hunger
and all hardness ; very active and strong of hand ;
very swift of foot ; very vigilant and circumspect in
their enterprises ; very present in perils ; very great
scorners of death." It is remarkable that the greatest
compliment an Irishman can be paid in our day is to
be assured that he is ''a. very hardy fellow," hardy
implying vigour, build, as well as courage, and that
the characteristic of the northern nations of Europe,
especially noticed by Lucan in the first century of
our era, was this scorn of death, which helped the
Irishman to bear himself with courage and to make
" as worthy a soldier as any nation he meeteth with."
Gainsford's G/ofy of England, published in 161 8, in-
forms us that " the name of galliglas is in a manner
extinct, but that of kern is in great reputation, as
serving them in their revolts and proving sufficient
28o THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
souldiers but excellent for skirmish," and that they
the Irish are desperate in revenge, ''and their kerne
thinke no man dead untill his head be off."
Those who are interested in the revival of the Irish
language — which Campion says he finds it solemnly
avouched in some of their pamphlets that Gathelus,
and after him Simon Brecke, devised it out of all
other tongues then extant in the world ! — will find
much to commend in Spenser's remarks on the sub-
ject. It is well known that his royal mistress, Elizabeth,
was keen on the study of the language, and the trans-
lation of the Scriptures into Celtic for which she
actually provided the type, much to the disgust of
Lord Cecil, her adviser, who asked if she considered
a language worthy of preservation in which such an
expression as " Di dav duv uv ooh " ^ could be found.
As a set-off against this story, there is that recorded
by Camdem of the Irish chieftain who refused to
learn English because it made them make wry mouths
when trying to speak it. '' It is unnatural," wrote
Spenser, "that any people should love another's
language than their own," and quotes the Scripture
'* for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh," which he applies to the case of the Irish
tongue speaking the things in the Irish heart, for
words are the " image of the mind."
Should any carp at Spenser's short and easy method
with the rebels and his occupation of the then charm-
ingly situated demesne of Kilcolman in the county
of Cork, let them not forget this plea for the Irish
language which was unpopular in his time with his
•^"Oit "OAb, •oub, ub, OTTi (sounds dih dav duv uv ovh) — a black ox
ate a raw egg.
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 281
set, and let them remember that one of the most
glorious and high-souled poems the literary world
has ever read — " The Faerie Queen " — " the wild
fruit which salvage soil hath bred," was written on
Irish soil, '' far from Parnassus Mount," in full view
of the grand old mountains of Kerry and in the
breezes of the Galty More — ^' the Mountains of Mole *'
— and in the inspiring vicinity of the modern town
of Buttevant, then known as Kilnamullagh, or the
church of the hills. This Spenser, however, explained
as the church of the Mulla, his name for the little
river Arobeg that flowed murmuringly past his castle
walls and by whose waters the poet was wont to
court the Muse, To it he alludes in the lines —
It giveth name unto that ancient cittie,
Which Kilnemulla clepped is of old.
From his house at Kilcolman the poem containing
these lines, " Colin Clout's Come Home Again,"
was sent to Sir Walter Raleigh on December 27th,
1 59 1. From his affectionate allusions we see that
the poet loved the Irish hills—'' Old Father Mole "
among them, and woods and rivers — of which he
gives a list in Faerie Queen, Book IV., Canto XI.,
and in Colin Clout. And from his pathetic descrip-
tion of the natives, we learn how he pitied them.
He tells us that after a short campaign, the inhabitants
of Munster were brought to such wretchedness that
any stony heart would rue the same ; " out of every
corner of the woods and glens they came, creeping
forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear
them. They looked like anatomies of death ; they
spoke like ghosts crying out of the graves. They did
282 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
eat the dead carrions where they did find them, yea
and one another soon after, in as much as the very
carcases they spared not to scrape out of their graves ;
and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks,
there they thronged to a feast for a time, yet not able
to continue there withall ; that in a short space there
were none almost left."
Such a picture, pitiful and revolting, reminds us
of what we have read ourselves, and our fathers have
told us, of the terrible potato famine of last century,
when the "ruthless Saxon" sought to alleviate the
miseries of those who could not help themselves.
This picture must not, however, be regarded as repre-
sentative, but as local. We are not surprised to learn
that Spenser never recovered from the shock of that
fatal day in October, 1598, when the Munster hills-
men plundered and burned his castle to the ground,
and with it a beloved child and many a precious manus-
cript. It was his death-blow dealt by the people he
pitied, and in the land he loved, and from which he
drew the imagery of his poetical landscapes.
Spenser often throws an interesting light upon some
old-standing custom of the natives. For instance,
when writing of their manner of moving about with
their cattle from one mountain pasture to another,
he says — " There is one use among them to keepe
their cattle, and to live themselves the most part of
the yeare in boolies, pasturing upon the mountains
and waste, wilde places, and removing still to fresh
land as they have depastured the former." The
word booley is evidently the Irish biiaile, a place
where a cow (t»o) is kept or milked. He sees in this
custom a trace of Scythian origin, for the Scythians
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 283
used to live with their herds, and, like the Irish, on the
milk of their flocks ; but he disapproves of it for the
reason that they who lived among cattle could never
rise above a state of barbarism, and their boolies often
became the refugees of outlaws and the receptacles of
stolen kine.
Spenser also compares the Irish style of weapons
and mode of warfare, marriage, dancing, singing and
burying with the Scythian, With regard to their
mode of burying, Campion in his History of Ireland
says — "They follow the dead corpses to the grave
with bowlings and outcryes, pitifuU in apparence,
whereof grew (as I suppose) the proverbe ' to weepe
Irish.'" It is not improbable that the Irish caoinan,
or lamentation for the dead, was derived from the
East. The Jews, we know, practised this custom to
increase the sadness of their funeral solemnities. The
funeral corteges of the Greeks were preceded or
followed by women called Threnodoi, playing mourn-
ful strains on the flute ; while the praeficae, or mourn-
ing women, who sang the Naenia, were a prominent
feature of the Roman obsequies. David's lament
over Saul, the Persian chorus in the Persae, the
Carthaginian wail for Dido, and the Scotch Coronach,
" He is gone on the mountain," remind one of the
Irish caoinan ; while the Ulooloo, the burden of the
ohorus, is identical with the Latin ululo, and the Greek
ololuzo. In an account of a caoine in Ireland written
many years ago, the dirge was described as beginning
with the words '' Ulooloo, why did you die? It was
not for want of good living. You had plenty of potatoes
and meal . . ." The refrain of all these caoines
seem to have been — "Ulooloo, why did you die?"
2 84 ^^^ MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
Camden tells us that even before death ''certain
women, hired to lament, stand at the joining of the
cross-roads, and spreading out their hands, call on the
dying man with certain outcries fitted for the nonce ;
and as if they would stay the soul as it laboured to
free itself from the body, recount all his wordly wealth
and enjoyment. They tell him of his wife, of his
personal beauty, of his fame, of his kinsfolks, his
friends and his horses. They then demand of him
why he will depart ; and whither ; and to where he
is going ? They expostulate with the soul, accusing
it of unthankfulness ; and tell it with piteous wailing,
that it is now about to leave the body to go to hag-
gish women, who appear by night and in darkness."
Spenser refers to these wailings for the dead in an
interesting passage in which he attempts to establish
the Scythian origin of the custom. " There are other
sorts of cryes," he writes, " also used among the
Irish, which savour greatly of the Scythian barbarisme.
as their lamentations at their buryals, with dispairfuU
out-cryes, and immoderate waylings, the which M.
Stanihurst might also have used for an argument to
prove them Egyptians. For so in Scripture it is
mentioned that the Egyptians lamented for the death
of Joseph. Others think this custome to come from
the Spaniards, for that they do immeasurably likewise
bewayle their dead. But the same is not proper
Spanish, but altogether heathenism, brought in
thither first either by the Scythians or the Moores
that were Africans, and long possessed that country.
For it is the manner of all pagans and infidels to be
intemperate in their waylings of their dead, for that
they had no faith nor hope of salvation. And this
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 285
ill custome also is especially noted by Diodorus
Siculus, to have been in the Scythians and is yet
among the Northerne Scots at this day, as you may
reade in their chronicles."
This " ill custome " and " the wake " must be
regarded as present survivals of Paganism, for Chris-
tianity has taught us '' not to sorrow as those who
have no hope for those who sleep in Christ." The
Celtic heart clings to old customs for fear of giving
offence to something invisible, and of meeting with
bad luck in consequence.
The caoman can, however, not be said to be alto-
gether rhyme without reason, if we may judge from
the elaborate account given of it by Miss Beaufort in
" The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy," in
which she describes the relations and the caoiniers
ranging themselves in two divisions, one semi-chorus
at the head and the other at the feet of the corpse,
and the two choruses chanting to the accompaniment
of the harp their doleful verses in answer to each
other, and at the conclusion of each stanza uniting in
a general chorus. The verses were of four lines, con-
sisting of four feet each, and the subject of the song
was the greatness and many virtues of the deceased
who was often addressed. Some of these rhyming
women were skilful and much sought after, and made
quite a good thing out of their gloomy profession.
And as the funeral procession moved forth to the
distant cemetery it was joined by every passer by,
who also lifted up his voice and wept, even though he
had no acquaintance with the deceased, in order to
show his sympathy with those who were weeping.
This custom has not altogether died out, but though
286 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
it is considered correct form in tlie country to turn
back and follow any funeral one meets for some dis-
tance, the habit of howling has fortunately been
abandoned. It was indeed rather strange, as octo-
genarians relate, to see people howling to their hearts'
content, and then indifferently inquiring who was
being buried.
Arrived at the cemetery the procession of relatives
and criers, whose spirits all through these doleful
proceedings have been sustained with spirituous
liquors, walked three times round it chanting the
Creed. But during the interment the caoine with its
mournful cadences and clapping of hands was resumed.
After this fashion the Irish for many centuries used to
bury their dead. The last occasion on which the
writer knows of such a caoine was that raised in
Valentia by the Irish women in honour of the beloved
rector of that island. Very solemn and weird indeed
must the voices of lamentation have sounded as the pro-
cession of boats moved slowly over the waters. The
same custom prevails to this day in Palestine where, as
Thompson says, " they weep, howl, beat their breasts,
and tear their hair according to contract. But flute-
players varied the monotous dirge in several house-
holds." 1
Spenser, in his desire to establish a connection
between the Irish and the Scythians, falls back on such
authorities as Olaus Magnus, Solinus, and lo Bohemus I
He rejects the Spanish origin of the Irish as an absurd
theory, partly, we think, from conviction and partly
because of the Elizabethan Englishman's hatred of
Spain ; and declares that the Irish act foolishly in
^ Cantabat moestis tibia funeribus, Ov., Fast VI,
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 287
trying "to ennoble themselves by wresting their
auncientry (ancestry) from the Spaniard, as of all
nations under heaven, the Spaniard is most mingled
and most uncertain."
He also waxes indignant with M. Stanihurst for
endeavouring to derive the Irish from the Egyptians
who came into our island under the leadership of
Scota, and who in all their battles used to call upon
the name of Pharaoh, crying " Ferragh, Ferragh."
What an interesting discussion M. Stanihurst would
have carried on with the holders, if there were any in
his day, of the British-Israel theory! He and they
might possibly have lost themselves in an " Egyptian
darkness." With regard to this battle cry — " Ferragh
Ferragh,^' Spenser declares that many Irishmen were
called by the name of F'erragh, which he derived from
the Scotch Fergus. And in his Faerie Queen, iv. 2,
he immortalized the name which may be preserved in
the Irish Forrach or Farrach or meeting-place as in
Forrach-mach n Amhalgaidh (the assembly place of
Awley's tribe) by introducing a knight, " Sir Ferraugh "
who had carried off the false Florimell from Bragga-
docio and who lost her to Sir Blandamour, who
unhorsed him in a sudden onset.
Among the Scythian customs adopted by the Irish
he mentions the " loose jiggs ; " so that to please
Spenser we should have in future to speak of Scythian
jigs instead of Irish reels. He also derived from
Scythia the Irish custom of calling on their captain's
name in battle, for example, the O'Neills shouting
" Laundarg-abo," that is the bloody hand, the O'Briens
" Laund-laider," or the strong hand, as they came to
close quarters with their foes.
288 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
And describing the Irish mode of fighting, he
writes : " Their confused kinde of march in heapes,
without any order or array, their clashing of swords
together, their fierce running upon their enemies, and
their manner of fight, resembleth altogether that which
is read in histories to have been used by the
Scythians."
He then passes on to another sphere — the super-
stitious practices of both nations — to establish their
connexion. He says that the common oath of the
Scythians was by the sword and by fire,"" and that the
Irish were accustomed when going to battle to " say
certain prayers or chants to their swords, making a
cross there with upon the earth and thrusting the points
of the blades into the ground ; thinking thereby to
have the better successe in fight." He also says that
the Irish use commonly to swear by their swords and
at the kindling of fire and lighting of lamps to say
certain prayers and use superstitious rites which prove
that they venerate the fire and the light like the
northern nations. The Scythians concluded solemn
compacts by drinking a bowl of blood together, and
the Northern Irish did the same.
But while insisting on the Scythian origin of the
great mass of the people, he acknowledges that some
of Spanish descent were found on the Southern and
Western coasts of Ireland, which were frequently
visited by strangers "repayring thither for trafficke
and for fishing, which is very plentifull upon these
coasts." And among the Spanish customs he mentions
the wearing of the moustache. " This," he says, '' was
the auncient manner of the Spaniard, as yet it is of
^ Lucian hath • by the sword and by the wind.'
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 289
all the ^Mahometans to cut off all their beards close
save onelie their moustachios which they wear long."
This custom, he says, was due to the fact that hair on
the face was found unpleasant in warm countries ;
while on the contrary the northern nations wore all
their hair on head and face, and therefore " the
Scythians and Scottes wore glibbes to keep their
heads warm and long beards to defend their faces
from cold. And as amongst the old Spaniards the
Irish women have the management of all household
affairs both at home and abroad, ride on the wrong
side of the horse, and wear a deep smock sleeve.
While from the Gauls he would derive the custom
of drinking blood and smearing the face therewith.
But while the Gauls drank the blood of their enemies,
the Irish drank the blood of their friends. At the
execution of one Morrogh O'Brien he saw, he tells
us, an old woman who was his foster mother taking
up his head and sucking the blood that flowed there-
from, saying that the earth was not worthy of it ; and
also steeping her face and breast in the blood, and
tore her hair crying out and shrieking most terribly.
Campion remarks that Solinus said that the Irish were
wont to embrue their faces in the blood of their slain
enemies in order to seem terrible and martial.
Spenser also alludes to the Irish custom of holding
assemblies upon a rath or hill, which he says they
held in order to discuss wrongs between township and
township and one private person and another. He
alleges that '' these round hills and square bawnes
which you see so strongly trenched and thrown up "
— which we know as raths and forts^-were folkmotes
or meeting places for the people, and that many
T
290 THE MIDLAND SEPTS AND THE PALE
villainous deeds have been wrought, and many Eng-
lishmen and good Irish subjects murdered at the
same meeting-places. " For the Irish never come to
those raths but armed, whether on horse or foot, which
the English nothing suspecting are there commonly
taken at advantage like sheep in the pen-fold." We
presume the long mantle was a complete concealment
for their weapons and the long glibbs hanging over
the eyes afforded a perfect cover for their evil
intentions.
Spenser suggests that the round hills were cast up
by the Danes as forts for their protection in each
quarter of the cantred so that in case of any sudden
alarm they might betake themselves thereto, and that
the other bawns which were "foure square, well-
entrenched," were built by the Saxons for parley and
discussion. Other mounds, cairns and stone monu-
ments, according to him, mark the scene of some
battle or burial; and with regard to the gigantic
dolmens and cromlechs which in his time were called
*' Giants' Trevetts," because it was thought that no
one but giants could have raised them into their
present position, it is interesting to note that even
in his day there was much discussion over these then
remains of prehistoric man, and that some went so
far as to deny that they had been placed there by
man's hand or art, " but only remained there so since
the beginning and were afterwards discovered by the
deluge and laide open as then by the washing of the
waters or other like casuality." The latter suggestion
quoted by Spenser is not very remote from the theories
of inland sea and glacier, which are said to explain
certain strange marks of men's hands and animals'
IRISH CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES 291
feet which have been found imprinted on many of the
stones in Ireland.
But these and kindred subjects have been discussed
in Ce/U'c T'^^pes of Life and Art^ and I shall not,
therefore, weary my readers further than to invite
them to make personal researches in the history of
Irish life and customs which will indubitably prove
as instructive as interesting.
NOTE TO CHAPTERS XIII. AND XIV., Etc.
The following is a short glossary of difficult legal terms in these and
other chapters, most of which are Irish : —
Bieng (Irish), a bribe given to the Brehon for his favour in settling
disputes, in the State Papers of the period means money, cattle or
horses given to the lords marchers or their followers to secure favour ;
Black-rent, a bribe paid by English to Irish neighbours to abstain from
plunder (Black-mail in Scotland) ; Bonacht also honogli, Irish huana,
billeted soldier, and bunadh, a soldier ; O'Reilly gives huanacht, free
quarters for soldiers ; Bonneh or Boyne, the same as coin in coyne
and livery, bonn is Irish for groat, exaction for maintenance of the
lords, gallowglasses or kerne, also bonagium ; Byerahe, a quarterly
exaction by the lord on persons Hving under his jurisdiction ; manes (Ir.
cain, tribute), ransom for murder, theft or felony, also a fine for not giving
he lord the pre-emption ; Coyne (Ir. coinnimh entertainment) generally
coyne and livery, free quarters for man and horse, livery is the English
word for deliver ; also coyne and joy ; also coine hon ; Cuddee (Ir.
cudoich, night's portion) ; also cody, night's supper taken by the lord
for himself and retinue ; kyntroisk, a forfeiture of a beef or animal for
refusing coin and livery, probably from Irish cain, fine and truscad,
fasting, a fine for having made the soldiers fast ; mertyeght, ex-
action of meat, drink and candles upon a visit of a great man. The
following words refer to crime : — Alterages, one of the amends for
offences less than murder ; also meant nourishing {alo Latin,
nourish) of a child ; garty, ransom for felony ; sault, ransom for mur-
der or manslaughter ; slauniiagh, surety or bail ; srahe, means a
tax ; urragh from Ir. oireacht, a clan or family ; oireachtas, meeting of
the clans ; Regrating means buying and selling in the same fair or
market.
APPENDIX.
SOME KING'S COUNTY FAMILIES IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The plan followed in compiling these notes has
been to deal only with those families who were
actually resident in the county, and whose names
appear, either as members of Parliament, High Sheriffs,
or Grand Jurors. Owing to lack of space, it is inevit-
able that many names must be passed over ; and since
Mr. Hitchcock has written fully on families of native
origin, we have dealt principally with those who, from
time to time, have settled in the county. Most of the
landowners, at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, held their estates under patents of Elizabeth
or James I., while some represented families which had
been established from a period anterior to the formation
of the county in 1558. The presence of French names
may be ascribed to the fact that the Huguenot settle-
ment of Portarlington is situated on the borders of the
county. With few exceptions, the families of Dutch
descent, such as Westenra, Bor, Grave, etc., derived
from merchants who had settled in Dublin after the
persecutions of Alva, and not, as might have been
expected, from the adherents of King William.
In cases where families are still represented in the
county, we have endeavoured to outline the descent ;
294
APPENDIX
and we may be pardoned for giving rather fuller infor-
mation about those, of whom particulars could only
be obtained from wills and other unpublished docu-
ments. Though no order has been adopted in
enumerating the different families, we have chosen the
style of a narrative, in the hope that it may lend some
interest to a subject, which must necessarily be little
more than a mere recitation of names and dates.
In the eighteenth century, as at present, the largest estate in
the King's County, was in the possession of the Digby family.
This great property, comprising the entire barony of Geas-
hill, belonged to the FitzGeralds, from whom it came to
Sir Robert Digby, of Coleshill, Warwick, on his marriage
in 1600 with Lettice, only child of Gerald FitzGerald, Lord
Offaly, and granddaughter of Gerald, eleventh Earl of
Kildare. This lady, who had been created by James I.
Baroness Offaly for life, gallantly held Geashill Castle against
the insurgents in 1641. Her son, Robert Digby, was ele-
vated to the peerage of Ireland in 1620 as Baron Digby,
of Geashill, with remainder to his brothers. He was the
ancestor of the present peer. In 1765 an earldom was
conferred on the seventh baron, but this title has since
become extinct. The Lords Digby, having much finer
seats in England, have seldom resided at Geashill Castle,
which during the greater part of the eighteenth century,
was occupied by the agent of the estate. The Right Rev.
Essex Digby, Bishop of Dromore, a younger brother of
the first lord, was father of the Right Rev. Simon Digby,i
Bishop of Elphin, from whom the Digbys of Landenstown,
Ballincurra, and other Irish branches are derived.
Unlike the owners of Geashill, who have usually resided
on their English estates, the Parsons family have always
made Parsonstown their home. It was Sir Laurence
Parsons, younger brother of Sir William Parsons, Bart.,
Lord Justice of Ireland, who first settled at Birr. The
1 He was better known as an artist than a divine (Lecky : Ireland in
the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I., p. 205). Some of his work in water-
colour is in the possession of his descendant. Col. Digby, of Ballinacurra,
Co. Westmeath.
APPENDIX 295
two brothers came to Ireland about 1590, but the male
descendants of Sir William, who was of Bellamount,
Co. Dublin, came to an end on the death of Richard,
second Earl of Rosse, in 1764.
In 1677 Sir Laurence Parsons, of Birr Castle, grandson
of the first settler, was created a baronet. His son, Sir
William Parsons, many years M.P. for King's County, died
in 1740, and was succeeded by his grandson, Sir Laurence
Parsons, third baronet, who augmented the family fortunes
by his marriage with Mary, elder daughter and co-heiress
of William Sprigge, of Cloonivoe, King's Co. (by Catherine,
daughter of Edward Denny, of Tralee, Co. Kerry, M.P.).
Sir William Parsons, fourth baronet, M.P. for the King's
County, who succeeded his father. Sir Laurence, in 1749,
was High Sheriff, 1779, and long foreman of the Grand Jury.
He took a prominent part in the Volunteer movement,
and held a great review at Woodfield, near Birr, besides
raising a corps called the Parsonstown Loyal Independents.
In 1792 Laurence Parsons-Harman, M.P. for Longford,
Sir William's half-brother, who had inherited Newcastle,
Co. Longford, from his mother's family, the Harmans,
was raised to the peerage of Ireland as Baron Oxmantown,
being advanced in 1806 to the Earldom of Rosse, with
remainder, in default of male issue, to his nephew, Sir
Laurence Parsons, fifth baronet, of Birr Castle. Lord Rosse
died in 1807, when the earldom devolved on his nephew
according to the limitation, while the Newcastle estates
were inherited by his only child Frances, wife of Robert
King, first Viscount Lorton, grandfather of Colonel
Wentworth King-Harman, now of Newcastle. Laurence,
second Earl of Rosse, who represented King's County and
the University in Parliament, was father of William, third
earl, the celebrated astronomer, and great-grandfather of
the present peer.
Charleville Forest, now the seat of the Lady Emily Bury,
was at the beginning of the eighteenth century the residence
of the Forth family. It was then called Redwood, and
James Forth, who had succeeded to the estate at the
decease of his father, John Forth, in 1680, was High Sheriff
in 171 1, and represented the county in Parliament, 17 13-14.
James Forth left no male issue, and soon after his death,
Charles Moore, second Lord Moore, and proprietor of the
296 APPENDIX
town of Tullamore, removed from Croghan in this county
to Redwood, which he named after himself, Charleville.
He was Muster Master-General in Ireland, and was elevated
to the Earldom of Charleville in 1758, but dying with-
out issue in February, 1764, his titles became extinct.
His estates devolved on his widow^ for life, and at her death
in 1779 came to his grand-nephew, Charles William Bury,
then a minor, the only child of John Bury, of Shannon
Grove, Co. Limerick, whose mother had been the earl's
only sister. Charles William Bury, of Charleville, sometime
M.P. for Kilmallock, was created in 1797 Baron Tullamore,
in the peerage of Ireland, and subsequently advanced to
the dignities of Viscount and Earl of Charleville. These
titles became extinct on the death of the fifth earl in 1875,
when the estates devolved on the present owner, the Lady
Emily Howard-Bury, a daughter of the third earl.
After the death of Charles Moore, Earl of Charleville,
in 1764, his widow removed to Dublin, while Charleville
was occupied by Capt. Thomas Johnston, whose name is
found on the Grand Jury for several years subsequently.
It was while on a visit to the Johnstons at Charleville that
Dr. Pocock, Bishop of Meath, who attained some eminence
as an author and traveller, died of apoplexy in September,
1765. Johnston's sister, Eliza, married in 1745 George
Stoney, of Greyfort, Co. Tipperary, and through this
marriage Emell Castle, which had been purchased by the
Johnstons from Richard Carroll in 1782, has at length
devolved on its present possessor, Johnston Thomas Stoney,
now of Emell Castle.
Though the name is now unknown the family of Lyons
held for over 150 years a prominent position in the county.
Captain William Lyons was one of the settlers of James I's.
time, and his possessions comprised Killeen and part of
the great wood of Fercall. The estate of Clonarrow, after-
wards called River Lyons, had been the seat of Geoffrey
Philips, who died in 1601, leaving, with other issue, two
sons, Henry and Colley. As the names Colley, Geoffrey,
Philips and Henry are found in the pedigree of the Lyons
family, we may presume that they acquired that estate by
marriage with a Philips.
Charles Lyons, of Killeen, High Sheriff, 1663, married
Margaret, daughter of Thomas Moore, of Croghan, M.P
APPENDIX 297
and died, 1694. John Lyons, who purchased Ledeston,
Co. Westmeath, in 1715, and was ancestor of the family
seated there, was, apparently, his younger son ; Geoffrey,
the elder, born 1654, succeeded to Killeen, was High
Sheriff, 1693 and 1702, and married his cousin, Jane
Moore, of Croghan. This Geoffrey had issue, three sons
and four daughters, viz., Colley, Thomas, Philips, Anne,
Mary, Elizabeth, and Susan, who married Thomas Nesbitt
in 1701.
Colley Lyons, of River Lyons, the eldest son, was some-
time M.P. for King's County and High Sheriff, 17 15. He
married, 1706, Susanna, daughter of Elnathan Lumm, and
died 1 74 1, leaving a daughter, Anne, wife of Richard Cane,
of Larabrian, Co. Kildare (by whom she had a son, Lyons
Cane), and an only son, Henry, who succeeded his father.
Henry Lyons, of River Lyons, many years M.P. for
King's County and foreman of the Grand Jury, was High
Sheriff in 1744. In the previous year he had married
Anne, daughter of the Right Hon. George Rochfort, M.P.,
and sister of Robert, first Earl of Belvedere, by whom he
had issue three daughters and co-heiresses : Elizabeth,
married in 1762 Robert Barry, M.P. for Charleville ; Anne,
married John Nixon; and Henrietta, who married in 1780
Robert Garden. Henry Lyons died at Bath in 1782, his
wife surviving till the following year. After his death the
house at River Lyons, which is near Philipstown, remained
unoccupied, and has since become a ruin. Through his
youngest daughter the property came to the Gardens, from
whom it passed by marriage to Arthur Champagne, Esq.
The family of Wakely, who still retain their ancestral
home, was seated at Ballyburley as far back as 1550. Its
representative at the beginning of the eighteenth century
was John Wakely, M.P. for Kilbeggan, who built Bally-
burley Church in 1686, and was High Sheriff of the King's
County, 1695. He married Elizabeth Lambert, niece of
the Earl of Cavan, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
Thomas, who was High Sheriff, 1726. This Thomas
Wakely, of Ballyburley, who died 1751, had three sons :
John, of Ballyburley, High Sheriff, 1763, whose male
descendants expired in 1842 ; James, who d. unm. ; and
Francis, great-grandfather of His Honour Judge Wakely,
the present owner of Ballyburley.
29S APPENDIX
With ramifications endless and residences innumerable,
the Armstrong family, though still represented in the
county, cannot be followed in detail. Their original
ancestor came from the Scottish border, and settled in
Fermanagh. Several of his sons established themselves in
the King's County, Edmund at Stonestown ; Thomas, the
third son, at Ballycumber, and Archibald, the eighth, at
Ballylin. Edmund's heir male and representative,
Andrew Armstrong, of Gallen Priory, many years M.P. for
the county, and twice High Sheriff, was created a baronet
in 1S41, and the title is now enjoyed by his grandson. Sir
Andrew Armstrong, third baronet ; while Archibald was
ancestor of Sir George Armstrong, Bart., the well-known
proprietor of the " Globe " newspaper, who obtained a
similar honour in 1892. General Armstrong, who founded
Woolwich Arsenal, was also a member of this family.
At the Summer Assizes, 1779, no less than four
Armstrongs were on the Grand Jury, three of them being
named Andrew.
Besides these branches of the one family, there were
also the Armstrongs of Mount Heaton, who came of a
different stock.
Mount Heaton, near Roscrea, now Mount St. Joseph's
Monastery, received its name from the Heatons, who were
of Yorkshire ancestry. The Rev. Richard Heaton, of
Mount Heaton, otherwise Balliskannagh, died in 1666,
leaving three sons and three daughters. Edward, the
eldest son, succeeded, but on his death in 1703, the estate
came to his next surviving brother, Francis, who was High
Sheriff of the King's County in 1705. Francis Heaton, of
Mount Heaton, married, 1704, Elizabeth, daughter of
Robert Curtis, of Inane, Co. Tipperary, M.P., and had four
daughters, of whom Mary,married, 1 731, William Armstrong,
of Farney Castle, Co. Tipperary. Through this marriage
Mount Heaton came to the Armstrongs, who were not,
however, related to the other families of that name in
King's County, being derived from a Captain William
Armstrong, who had settled in Co. Tipperary about 1660.
The Rt. Hon. John Armstrong, of Mount Heaton, M.P.
died 1 791, leaving a son, William Henry Armstrong, of
Mount Heaton, M.P., who sold that estate to the
Hutchinsons in 181 7.
APPENDIX 299
Corolanty, now the seat of Edward Francis Saunders,
Esq., who represents the male Hne of that ancient family,
formerly of Saunder's Court, Co. Wexford, and Newtown
Saunders, Co. Wicklow, was built about 1698 by John
Baldwin. His father, Captain John Baldwin^ who belonged
to a Warwickshire family, got a grant of lands at Shinrone,
and was High Sheriff of King's County in 1672. John
Baldwin, junr., High Sheriff, 1697, survived his father less
than a year, and died in 1699, leaving, with other children,
Thomas, his heir; Mary married, 1700, Edward Crow, of
Spruce Hall, Co. Galway ; and Catherine married, 1704,
Thomas Meredyth, of Newtown, Co. Meath, M.P.
Thomas Baldwin, who succeeded to Corolanty, was born,
1679, and died, 1732, leaving by his wife, Mary Eyre, of
Eyrecourt, two sons and two daughters, viz., John ;
Thomas, who became Attorney-General of Jamaica;
Margery, married, 17 18, Charles Sadleir, of Castletown
Co. Tipperary; and Lucy, who died, unm., in 1768.
John Baldwin, the elder son, was of Corolanty, but, being
extravagant, dissipated the estates, and died without issue
in 1754. His widow soon afterwards married Hervey,
Lord Mountmorres.
Part of the Corolanty property came into the possession
of Dr. Richard Baldwin, Provost of Trinity College, who
died in 1758, leaving the whole of his large fortune to the
University. Though his parentage has been the subject of
some dispute, he was not in any way related either to the
Corolanty family, the Queen's County Baldwins, or to the
Baldwins of Dublin, who subsequently settled at Boveen,
near Shinrone. Sir Brydges Baldwin, of Dublin, Knight,
who died in 1 765, was nephew of Richard Baldwin, of Dublin
(died 1768), from whom the Baldwin-Hamiltons derive.
This Richard Baldwin had an only son, Richard, of The
Four Crosses, Co. Wicklow, High Sheriff, 1756, who was
father of Colonel Charles Baldwin, of Boveen, High Sheriff
of King's County, 1802. By his wife, Miss Barry (whose
taste for acting Sir Jonah Barrington has so severely
criticised), the only daughter of Sir Nathaniel Barry,
Bart, the celebrated Dublin doctor, Colonel Charles
Baldwin left an only son, Charles Barry Baldwin, of
Boveen, M.P. grandfather of the present representative.
The Warburtons of Garryhinch have held that estate
300 APPENDIX
since the reign of Charles IL, when their ancestor, the
original grantee, was Clerk- Assistant to the Irish House of
Commons. His eldest son, Richard Warbiirton, of
Garryhinch, was M.P. for Portarlington, 1692-17 13.
George Warburton, third son of Richard, eventually
succeeded to the estates, and was ancestor of the present
possessor ; while the fifth son, William, married Barbara,
daughter of Lytton Lytton, of Knebworth, Herts, by whom
he had a son, Richard Warburton-Lytton, of Knebworth,
grandfather of Edward George, first Lord Lytton, the dis-
tinguished novelist and statesman.
^Moystown, near Banagher, now the seat of Bolton
Waller, Esq., was for nearly two hundred years the home
of the L' Estrange family. Thomas L" Estrange, first of
Moystown, who was included in the Act of Attainder,
1689, represented Banagher 1692-93, 1695-99 and 1703-13.
He married Miss Peisley, and had a son Henry, of ^loys-
town, M.P., ancestor of Colonel Henry Peisley L'Estrange,
of ]\Ioystown, D.L., fourth of his name in lineal succession,
who sold the estate about the middle of the last century.
Through the marriage of Henry L'Estrange, eldest son of
Thomas, of Moystown, with Frances Malone, of Litter,
King's County, the Malone property came to the
L'Estranges, and eventually descended to the late Revd.
Savile L'Estrange-Malone. Henry Malone, of Litter, High
Sheriff, 1720, belonged to the same family as Richard
Malone, Lord Sunderlin, whose brother Edmond was the
celebrated commentator on Shakespeare. Another branch
resided at Pallas Park, in this county, once the seat of
James Tilson, who married, in 1750, Gertrude, Dowager
Countess of Kerry.
The Vaughans of Golden Grove descend from Hector
Vaughan, who hailed from Pembrokeshire. By patent,
30th December, 1668, he obtained a grant of part of the
estate in King's County of Terence Coghlan, Attainted ;
and acquired, by marriage with Mary, only daughter and
heiress of Captain William Peisley, the estate of Golden
Grove, otherwise Knocknamese, which has ever since re-
mained in the possession of his descendants. William
Peisley Vaughan. ^ who lived to a very advanced age, was
^ His two sons, Hector and Billy ^"aughan, were at Athy School in
1 7 18. See the " Autobiography of Pole Cosby," (recently published in
the Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society, vol. II., p. 90).
APPENDIX
301
High Sheriff, 1738; he was succeeded by his grandson,
William Peisley Vaughan, who served the same office in
1766. The male line of Vaughan became extinct in 1842,
when the property devolved on Mary, wife of Samuel
Dawson Hutchinson, of Mount Heaton, she being the only
child and heiress of John Lloyd (a younger son of the
Gloster family), by his wife, Martha Vaughan, of Golden
Grove, and the property is now enjoyed by her son,
William Peisley Hutchinson-Lloyd-Vaughan. Through his
mother, Mr. Vaughan also represents the family of Lloyd,
of Gloster, settled there for over two hundred years. For
three generations, ending with the late Colonel Hardress
Lloyd, members of the family represented the county in
parliament. John Lloyd, of Gloster^ Barrister-at-Law, was
al«o returned in two parliaments as member for Innistiogue.
He was Colonel of the Shinrone Volunteers, and through
his mother, Henrietta Waller, of Castletown, county
Limerick, descended from the Parliamentarian General,
Sir Hardress Waller.
The family of Nesbitt is of long standing in the county,
descending from Albert Nesbitt, of Tubberdaly, High
Sheriff, 17 10, who v/as a scion of the family of Woodhiil,
county Donegal Gifford Nesbitt, of Tubberdaly, died in
1773, having devised the estates to his nephew, John Down-
ing, who assumed the name of Nesbitt, and died in 1847.
On the death of the latter's daughter in 1886, they passed to
her cousin, Edward John Beaumont, now Beaumont Nesbitt,
the present possessor.
Humphrey Minchin, of Ballynakill, county Tipperary,
M.P. for that county, succeeded in 1686, on the death of
his elder brother Thomas,^ to the estate of Busherstown,
formerly Butcherstown, where his descendants have since
resided. On Friday, 23rd March, 1764, as recorded in the
"London Magazine" for that year: — "The house of
Humphrey Minchin, of Bushestown, King's County, Esq.,
was broke open and robbed of cash, with several Bank
Notes, and was afterwards set on fire, by which his Library
and Books of account were consumed, with several papers
of Value, and with them some Examinations of Felony, which
were next day to have been forwarded to Clonmel Assizes ;
^ One of his daughters married Dr. Thomas Parnell, the poet.
302 APPENDIX
and suspecting this mischief was purposely contrived to de-
stroy the said Examinations, has offered a reward of ;^5o
for the discovery of the first Person, and ;^io for each of
the others." George John Minchin, D.L., with whom the
male line terminated, died in 1897, when the estates came
to his nephew Captain Richard Welch, now of Bushers-
town, who has assumed the surname and arms of INIinchin.
Cangort, originally Camgart, i.e., the marshy field,
has been the seat of the Atkinsons since the time of
James I. Anthony Atkinson, of Cangort, married, 1709,
Mary, daughter of Admiral John Guy, who is said to have
been instrumental in breaking the boom at the siege of
Derry ; he was M.P. for St. Johnstown, 1711-13, and for
Belfast, 1 7 13-14, and died in 1743, leaving numerous
issue. His eldest son hadng died in his lifetime, he was
succeeded by Guy, the second, but he, being a beneficed
clergyman in the north of Ireland, Cangort was long
occupied by Charles, a younger son, who acted as agent for
his brother. This Charles was ancestor of the branch now
settled at Ashley Park, Co. Tipperary, while the present
owner of Cangort is descended from the Rev. Guy.
One of their sisters married Francis Sanderson, ancestor
of the late Colonel Edward James Saunderson, of Castle
Saunderson, M.P.
The Bernards were a Carlow family, and the Castle
Bernard branch descended from a Thomas Bernard, who
settled in Birr about the middle of the eighteenth
century. His name first appears on the Grand Jury in
1766, and his son, Thomas Bernard, of Castletown, now
Castle Bernard, High Sheriff, 1785, took a prominent part
in the Volunteer movement, raising and maintaining a
corps known as the " Mountain Rangers." Thomas
Bernard, junr.. Colonel of the King's County Militia, who
succeeded his father in 181 5, was High Sheriff in the year
of the Irish rebellion, and long M.P. for the county. Mrs.
Caulfield French, his granddaughter, at present owns the
property, and the male line of Bernard is extinct.
Like the Bernards, the Drought family came from
Carlow, settling in the King's County towards the close of
the seventeenth century. They resided first at Cappa-
gowlan, otherwise Songstown, near Ballyboy. John
Drought, of Cappagowlan, married Mary, daughter of
APPENDIX
303
Eusebius Beasley, of Ricketstown, Co. Carlow (who was
nearly allied to the Earls of Aldborough), and had, with
other issue, two sons, Thomas, of the Heath, otherwise
Droughtville, ancestor of the Lettybrook family ; and
John, who settled at Whigsborough, which had previously
belonged to Captain James Sterling, now represented by
the Sterling Berry family. John Drought, junr., of
Whigsborough, was High Sheriff in 1780, and Thomas
Drought, of Droughtville, Colonel of Volunteers, in 1789.
The history of Leap Castle has been dealt with in another
part of this book. Jonathan Darby, of Leap, great-grandson
of Jonathan Darby, High Sheriff, 1674, married in 1745
Susanna Lovett, and had issue seven sons, and a daughter
Sarah, wife of Sir Jonathan Lovett, Bart. Several of the
sons distinguished themselves. Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre
Darby, K.C.B., who succeeded to Leap on the death of his
elder brother in 1802, commanded the " Bellerphon " at
the Nile ; Verney Lovett Darby, Barrister-at-Law, was
sometime M.P. for Gowran, while Christopher, the youngest
son, attained the rank of General in the army. The present
proprietor of Leap descends from John Darby, who suc-
ceeded to the estate on the death of his brother. Admiral
Darby, in 1823.
Rathrobin, the seat of Col. M. W Biddulph, was origin-
ally a castle of the Molloys, and doubtless owes its name
to one Robin Molloy, The present mansion was built by
the Biddulphs, about 1694, but greatly altered and enlarged
by its present owner. In a Deed of ist March, 1722, be-
tween " Francis Bidolph " and others, and Charles Sadleir,
of Castletown, Co. Tipperary, the name is spelt " Rath
Robin." This Francis Biddulph changed his residence to
Fortal, near Birr, and his son, Nicholas Biddulph, of Fortal
and Rath-robin, was High Sheriff of King's County in
1 741. On the latter's death in 1762, the estates devolved
on his two daughters and co-heiresses, but in i8ii, by will
of the survivor, Mrs. Bernard, of Castle Bernard, who died
without issue, Rathrobin and Fortal came to her cousin
INIargaret, Lady Waller. Francis Harrison Biddulph, of
Vicarstown, Queen's Co., as heir of entail immediately
took proceedings against Sir Robert and Lady Waller, as a
result of which he eventually succeeded to Rathrobin, while
Fortal passed to his cousin, Nicholas Biddulph, of Congor,
30.| APPENDIX
Co. Tipperary. Francis Harrison Biddulph, who married
1797, Mary Marsh, a descendant of the saintly Jeremy
Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor, was grandfather of
the present representative.
The family of Wetherelt, now unknown in this country,
long resided at Castletown Clonkeen, otherwise Castle
Wetherelt. William Wetherelt, of Castletown, married
Miss Hurd, of Lisdowney, Co. Kilkenny, and dying in
1703, was succeeded by his eldest son, Hurd Wetherelt,
High Sheriff, 1736. Hurd Wetherelt, of Castle Wetherelt,
married, 1717, Frances Heighington, of Donard, Co.
Wicklow, and had issue an only son, Vans Wetherelt, of
Castle Wetherelt, High Sheriff, 1757, who died unmarried,
1764, and seven daughters. Of these, Emilia, married in
1767 John Dames, of Rathmoyle, King's County, who is
now represented by the family of Longworth-Dames ; while
Frances, the youngest, became the wife of the Revd. John
Mulock, of Bellair, King's County, from whom descend the
Homan-Mulocks, and the Hon. Sir William Mulock,
K.C.M.G., Chief Justice of Ontario. With the close of the
century the Wetherelts (or Wetheralls, as the name came
to be written) sank in importance, and appear to have lost
much of their property. Sewell Wetherelt, of Castletown,
who married Miss Bird, of Bally-cumber, in 1779, was the
last of the family to reside there.
The Tarletons have resided at Killeigh for seven genera-
tions, and are descended from Gilbert Tarleton, a native of
Lancashire, who died at Killeigh in 1656. Sir Banastre
Tarleton, Bart., who won such reputation during the
American War, also came from Lancashire, and was
doubtless one of the same stock. Digby Tarleton, of
Killeigh, grandson of the original settler, married in 1705,
Arabella, daughter of William Weldon, of Rahinderry,
Queen's County, and had, with other issue, John Tarleton,
of Killeigh, whose son, John Weldon Tarleton, was on the
Grand Jury in 1778, and from him the present representative
is lineally descended.
In 1768 the name of Bor is first found on the Grand
Jury. Cornelius Bor, of Utrecht, who settled in Dublin in
1600, was the ancestor of the Ballindoolan family, other
branches being settled at Bor Court, Co. Dublin, and Bor-
mount Manor, in Wexford. Christopher Bor came from
APPENDIX 305
Meath and settled at Ballindoolan, still the property of the
descendants, about the middle of the eighteenth century ;
he was High Sheriff of King's County in 1777, and married
same year, Anne, daughter of Edward Loftus, of Grange,
Co. Westmeath, by whom he had a son, Humphrey, of
Ballindoolan, D.L., grandfather of the present proprietor.
Christopher's brother Edward, who married Jane, daughter
and heiress of William Peacock, of Tinny Park, otherwise
Tinnemuck, King's County, was the Grand Juror of 1768.
Like the Bors the family of Grave was of Dutch origin,
and possibly derived its name from the town of Grave
in Holland. It was the Revd. Joseph Grave who founded
the fortunes of the family in the King's County by
acquiring the Ballycommon property. A man of ability,
he had been a Scholar of Trinity College ; and, in conse-
quence of his marriage with Abigail, daughter of Right
Revd. Simon Digby, Bishop of Elphin, obtained the
important living of Geashill, which was in Lord Digby's
gift. He died, Vicar-General of the Diocese, in 1743,
leaving, with four daughters, three sons, of whom, Joseph,
the youngest, was sometime Chaplain, 93rd Foot, and
many years Rector of Ballycommon.
Simon Grave, of Ballycommon, the eldest son, suc-
ceeded his father, and was on roll for High Sheriff in
1747 and 1748. He died suddenly in 1750, a young man
and unmarried, when the property came to his next
brother, William, of Ballynagar. This William Grave, who
was fond of hunting and thriftless, married twice, and
died, leaving several children, of whom the survivor,
Letitia, married in 1801, Revd. Franc Sadleir, D.D.,
Provost of Trinity College ; he had previously sold Bally-
common to Daniel Chenevix, Lt. -Colonel of the Royal
Regiment of Artillery, in 1760. Like his wife, Miss
Arabin, Colonel Chenevix, was of Huguenot descent ; he
is at present represented by Henry Chenevix, J. P., King's
County. Daniel Chenevix, of Ballycommon, was High
Sheriff, 1764, and died in Dublin, 1776.
The Kings of Ballylin are a branch of the Roscommon
family of King, now represented by Sir Gilbert King, Bart.,
and appear to have settled in the King's County about
1765. John King, who purchased Ballylin from the
Armstrongs, was father of John King, M.P., High Sheriff of
U
306 APPENDIX
King's County in 1782, who devised Ballylin to his nephew,
Revd. Henry King. John Gilbert King, of Ballylin, only
son of the Revd. Henry, was some time I\I.P., King's
County, and died unmarried in 1901, when he was suc-
ceeded by his nephew, Henry Louis Mahon, now of
Ballylin, who has assumed the surname and arms of
King.
The family of Holmes, once resident in this county at
Belmont, Liscloony, and Derryholmes, frequently repre-
presented the borough of Banagher in Parliament. Peter
Holmes, of Johnstown, Co. Tipperary, M.P. for Athlone,
1727-31, was High Sheriff of King's County 1707, and
grandfather of Peter Holmes, of Peterfield (Johnstown)
some time M.P. for Banagher. George Holmes, of Lis-
cloony, King's Co., High Sheriff, 17 13, brother of the first-
named Peter, was also M.P. for Banagher. He died in
1 73 1, and was succeeded in the representation of Banagher
by his eldest son, Galbraith Holmes, High Sheriff, Co.
Longford, 1731, and Cavan, 1737, who does not appear
to have had a residence in King's County.
Gilbert Holmes, of Belmont, High Sheriff, 1771, married
in 1752, Mary Sanderson, of Castle Sanderson, and died,
18 10, leaving issue. His eldest son, Peter- Holmes, was
of Peterfield, Co. Tipperary, having inherited that estate
by will of his kinsman, Peter Holmes, of Peterfield,
M.P., who died in 1802 ; the third son, Revd. Gilbert
Holmes, afterwards Dean of Killaloe, was grandfather of
Major Hardress Holmes, now of St. David's, Co. Tip-
perary.
Readingstown, now Rahan, long perpetuated the family
of Reading, who seem to have settled there about the
middle of the seventeenth century. John Reading, of
Readingstown, High Sheriff, 16 71, married Phoebe,
daughter of Colonel John Otway, of Cloghonan (Castle
Otway), Co. Tipperary, and died, 1690. Two of his sons,
Otway and Nicholas, settled near their mother's relatives
at Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary, while John, the eldest son,
succeeded to the King's County estates. This John
Reading, of Readingstown, was High Sheriff in 1 703, but
subsequently removed his residence to Clonegown, in this
county, having sold his Readingstown property to the
Judge family. Exshaw's Magazine for 1757, thus notices
APPENDIX
;o7
the death of his widow, who survived him some ten years :
"Died the widow of John Reading, late of Readingstown,
King's County, sister of the Brigadier Borr."
Arthur Judge, of Readingstown, High Sheriff, 1750, was
the eldest son ©f Peter Judge, of Bailysheil, King's County,
by his wife Mary, daughter of Nicholas Toler, of Graige
(now Beechwood), Co. Tipperary. Peter's youngest sen,
Samuel, who succeeded his father at Ballyshiel, died in
1813, leaving three daughters and co-heiresses, viz. : Alary,
married, 1782, John Percy, of Ballintemple, King's County ;
Martha married, 1783, Very Rev. Edmund Burton, Dean
of Killaloe ; and Frances, married, 1790, Thomas Mulock,
of Kilnagarna, King's County.
Another branch of this family resided at Gageborough
(originally Gaichborough), and derived from John Judge,
an elder brother of Peter, of Ballyshiel, who married, 1703,
Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Robert Poyntz, by Rebecca,
daughter and heiress of John Gaich, of Gaichborough, M.D.
FAMILIES REFERRED TO IN THE ABOVE.
Armstrong, of Gallen.
Atkinson, of Cangort.
Baldwin, of Corolanty.
Baldwin, of Boveen.
Bernard, of Castle Bernard.
Biddulph, of Rathrobin.
Bor, of Ballindoolan.
Bury, of Charleville.
Champagne, of River Lyons.
Chenevix, of Ballycommon.
Dames, of Rathmoyle.
Darby, of Leap.
Digby, of Geashill.
Drought, of Droughtville.
Drought, of Whigsborough.
Forth, of Redwood.
Gaich, of Gaichborough.
Grave, of Ballycommon.
Heaton, of Mount Heaton.
Holmes, of Belmont.
Holmes, of Liscloony.
Hutchinson, of Mount Heaton.
Johnston, of Emell Castle.
Judge, of Ballysheil.
King, of Ballylin.
L'Estrange. ofMoystow^n.
Lloyd, of Gloster.
Lyons, of River Lyons.
^Ialone, of Litter.
Minchin, of Busherstown.
Moore, of Croghan.
:\Iulock, of Bellair.
Nesbitt, of Tubberdaly.
Parsons, of Parsonstown.
Peacock, of Tinnemuck,
Peisley, of Golden Grove.
Percy, of Ballintemple.
Philips, of Clonarrow.
Poyntz, of Gaichborough.
Reading, of Readingstown.
Sprigge, of Cloonivoe.
Sterling, of Whigsborough.
Tarleton, of Killeigh.
Tilson, of Pallas,
Vaughan, of Golden Grove,
Wakely, of Bally hurley.
Warburton, of Garryhinch.
Wetherelt, of Castletown.
GENERAL INDEX.
Anglo-Irish, the, $8.
Anwyl, Prof., 14.
Archdall, Monasticon Eihernicum,
240.
Ard-na-h-Eirean, 32, 40.
Argyle, 23.
Armstrong, 247, App,
Aryan, 14.
Athenry, Battle of, 63.
Athlone, 34.
Atkinson, App.
Athy, 23, 148.
Radh-ruadh, 10.
Baldwin, App.
Banagher, 246.
Banon, 175.
Beltaine, 18.
Bellingham, Sir E., 150.
Benn Eadair, 5.
Bermingham, 62. etc.
Bernard, 259, App.
Biddulph, App.
Birr, 105, 164 sq., 186, C. XVII.
Bit, the Devil's, 40.
Black Monday, loi.
Book of Rights, the, 27, etc.
Bor, App.
Brehon Law, 217, 269.
Brendan, St., 165.
Brereton, Sir William, 136.
Brigantia, 12.
Broghill, Castle, 173.
Bruce, Edward, 61, 62.
Burke, 67, 127.
Bury, 259, App.
Butler, Sir Piers, 97, 130.
Butlers, The, C. VIII.
Cambrensis, Giraldus, i, 2. 11, 34,
237-
Camden, 5, 221.
Campion, History of Ireland, 61,
131, 136, 225, 276, 283.
Captain, title of, 235,
Carbury 76.
Cashel, Psalter of, 5, ii.
Castle Bernard, 26.
Castletown, 42.
Chenevix, App.
Clanmalire, 75.
Clan-na-Boy, 67.
Cloghan, 31, 247.
Clonmacnoise, Annals, 169, 239, 241.
Clonoony, Castle, 243.
Clynn, Friar, 56, 61.
Cooke, Thomas L., 26.
Coote, Captain, 253.
Cork, 224.
Cosherings, p. 232.
Cowley, 138.
Cox, 156.
Coyne and Livery, 59, 94. note p. 29 1 .
Cuddies, 94.
Dagdha, lO.
Dangan, 55, 144 sq,, 182.
Darby, 176, 256, 263, App.
Dathi, 21.
Davis, Sir Jchn. 150. 190, 230, 272
De Burgh, 67.
Delvin, 243.
Dervorgilla, 50.
Desmond, Earl of, 69, 106, 219.
Digby (Lord). TS, App.
Drought, 51, 259, App.
DrumcuUen, 28.
Dublin, 100 sq.
Dunkerrin, 187.
Dunkerrin Volunteers, 259.
Dunnes, 254.
Durrow, 35.
Eglish, 24, 36.
Eglish (Rangers), 259.
Ely, O'Carroll, 42, 163.
Emmell, 187.
Eochaidh, 9, 17, 18, 20, 29, .sq.
Essex, Earl of, 158.
Essus, 33.
310
GENERAL INDEX.
Fearcall, 19, 36, 171 sq.
Felire, the, of Aengus, 7.
Ferbane, 31.
Five Bloods, the, 79.
Fomorians, 6.
Fortal, 24.
Forth, App.
Pour Masters, The, 74,1 35, 143,
172, 183.
Fox, 35.
Frankford, 174.
Froissart, 83.
Gaich, App.
Galway, town and Claddagh, 223.
George, St., Brotherhood of, 37.
Geashill, 16, 53.
Geraldines, The, C. VIII.
Gillpatrick, 44.
Glendine. 42.
Glossary (Cormac's), 18.
Goidel, II, 13.
Governors, Irish, 194 sq.
Graves, 247, App.
Grey, Lord Leonard, 143 sq.
Grey, Lord, 173.
Hanmer, Meredith, 3, Si, 206,
Heaton, App.
Heber, 16, 53.
Henry VIII., State Papers of, 97.
Heremon, 16, Sy
Holmes, App.
Hovvth, 5.
Husbands, 94.
Hussy (of Galtrim), 63, 106.
Hutchinson, App.
Ith. 12.
John, King, 197 sq.
Johnston, App.
Jovantucaros, 32.
Judge, App.
Keating, i, etc.
Kiaran (of Seirkieran), 18.
Kiaran (of Clonmacnoise), 239.
Kilcormac, 174,
Kildare, Earls of, 69, 105, 109,
123 sq., C. IX., 178.
Kilkenny, Statutes of, 58, 116.
Killclare, 35.
Killeigh, 39, 56, 161.
Killoughy, 86.
Killyon, 50.
King, App.
King's County, 38 sq.
King's County MiHtia, 261.
Kinneich, 8.
Kinnetty, 7, 26, etc.
Kinsale, 45.
Knocktow, Battle of, 126.
Lacy (Hugh de) 35, 57.
Leap Castle, 176, 184.
Leap Independents, 259.
L'Estrange, App.
Leinster, Book of, 98.
Leix, 23, C. X.
Lettybrook, 259.
Limerick, 223.
Lloyd, App.
Loftus, Archbishop, 157.
Lynally, 50.
Lyons, App.
Mab, Queen, 21.
MacAdam, 4.
MacAuley, 175.
MacCoghlan, 243 sq.
Macha, 7.
Malone, 253, App.
jNIarleburrough, Chronicle of, loi,
205.
Maryborough, 152.
Maynooth, Castle of, 136 sq.
Milesians, 10 sq.
INIinchin, App.
Moate, 218.
Mohng, St., 22.
Monasteroris, 77, 107.
jNIoneyguyr^en, 19.
iSIoryson, Fynes, C. XV.
Moore, App.
Mountjoy, Lord, 228.
INIoustache, Laws Regarding, 92,
III.
r^Iullaghmast, 154.
^Nlulock, App.
X'ames, Law Regarding, in.
Nesbitt, App.
Norman (Settlers), S"?-
GENERAL INDEX.
311
O'Carrolls, The, CC. XI.-XII.
O'Connors, The, CC. IV.-VIL
O'Curry, Eugene, 249.
O'Dempsey, 22, 55, -JS-
O'Dugan, 25. 42, 164.
Offaly, 16, 35, C. X.
Ogygia, 5-
Ogygia, The, 17.
O'Heerin, 55, 75.
O'Madden, 52, 245 sq.
O'Moore, 23, 65.
O'Mulloy, C. XL
O'Neill, 45, 127, 220.
O'Reilly (Irish Diet.), 17.
Ormonde, Earls of, lOi, 105,
Ossory, Gillpatrick of, 43.
O'Tooles, 71.
Oxburgh, 257.
Pale, Defence of, C. XIII.
Parliament, Irish, 112 sq.
Parsons, 251 sq., App.
Parthalon, 5.
Peacock, App.
Peisley, App.
Petrie, 28.
Petty, 267.
Philips, App.
Philipstown, 55, 152.
Pipe Rolls, 190.
Poynings, Sir E., 37, 116.
Poyntz, App.
Preston, General, 253 sq.
Rath Crochan, 21.
Reading, App.
Richard II., C. V.
Richey, Prof. A. C. 9S.
Rokeby (Sir Thomas) 72.
Rolleston, 259.
Ros Failge, 54.
Rosse, Earl of, 263.
Saffron, 59, 274.
Savage, Sir Henry, 71.
Seffin, 34, 165.
Silancia, 247.
Simnel, Lambert, 114.
Sinchellus, 86.
Skeffington, Sir William, 136.
Sliabh Beatha, 5.
Sliabh Bladma (Slieve Bloom), 7 sq.
IS, 164.
Slieve Mis, 15.
Solinus, I.
Spenser, 2, 42, 61, C. XVIII.
Sprigge, xVpp.
Stanihurst, i. 2, 131, 287.
St. Leger, 148.
Sterling, App.
Stoney, 263.
Surrey, Earl of, 109.
Synge, 250.
Taillte Tailltenn (Telltown), 9.
Tallaght, 6.
Tarleton, App.
Theiner, vetera monumenta, p. 209.
Thomas, Silken, C. IX.
Thomastown, 16.
Tighernach, 241, 249.
Tilson, App.
Treasury, The Irish, 190.
Tlachtga, 32.
Tuatha-de-Danann, 8 sq.
Tullamore, 75.
Turgesius, 241.
Ufford, Sir R., 69, 70.
Vaughan, App.
Vintios, 10.
Volunteer, Movement, 258 sq.
Wakefield Green, 92.
Wakely, App.
Waller, 262.
Warbeck, Perkin, 115.
Warburton, App.
W^are, Annals of, 132.
Wetherelt, App.
Woolsey, Cardinal, 131.
York, Richard Duke of, 104.
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